Causation in a physical world
In Michael J. Loux & Dean W. Zimmerman (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Metaphysics. Oxford University Press (2003)
| Abstract | 1. Of what use is the concept of causation? Bertrand Russell [1912-13] argued that it is not useful: it is “a relic of a bygone age, surviving, like the monarchy, only because it is erroneously supposed to do no harm.” His argument for this was that the kind of physical theories that we have come to regard as fundamental leave no place for the notion of causation: not only does the word ‘cause’ not appear in the advanced sciences, but the laws that these sciences state are incompatible with causation as we normally understand it. But Nancy Cartwright has argued [1979] that abandoning the concept of causation would cripple science; her conclusion was based not on fundamental physics, but on more ordinary science such as the search for the causes of cancer. She argues that Russell was right that the fundamental theories of modern physics say nothing, even implicitly, about causation, and concludes on this basis that such theories are incomplete. It is with this cluster of issues that I will begin my discussion. | |||||||||
| Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,679 |
| External links |
  Try with proxy. |
| Through your library | Configure |
Similar books and articlesDouglas Kutach (forthcoming). Causation and Its Basis in Fundamental Physics. Oxford University Press.
Huw Price & Richard Corry (eds.) (2007). Causation, Physics, and the Constitution of Reality: Russell's Republic Revisited. Oxford University Press.
A. M. Soto, C. Sonnenschein & P. A. Miquel (2008). On Physicalism and Downward Causation in Developmental and Cancer Biology. Acta Biotheoretica 56 (4).
John Campbell (2010). Control Variables and Mental Causation. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 110 (1):15-30.
J. Schaffer (2010). Causation, Physics, and the Constitution of Reality: Russell's Republic Revisited, Edited by Huw Price and Richard Corry. Mind 119 (475):844-848.
Alyssa Ney (2009). Physical Causation and Difference-Making. British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 60 (4):737-764.
Helen Beebee (2011). Hume's Impact on Causation. The Philosopher's Magazine (54):75-79.
Richard Corry (2006). Causal Realism and the Laws of Nature. Philosophy of Science 73 (3):261-276.
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2009-01-28Total downloads77 ( #10,363 of 549,070 )Recent downloads (6 months)5 ( #15,099 of 549,070 )How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
