Summary
Manipulations help us understand how things work-this holds true not only for everyday life but also for scientific inquiry. Philosophers have mostly focused on Woodwardian interventions when discussing manipulations in the context of scientific explanations. But this is too short-sighted. For there is more to empirical manipulation than just Woodwardian interventions. The concept of mere interactions captures such non-Woodwardian manipulations. Mere interactions do not qualify as interventions in Woodward’s sense; yet, they contribute crucial evidence to the explanatory enterprise in scientific practice. They thus present a substantial addition to the interventionist framework and fill a gap in contemporary “mechanisms and interventions”-style philosophy of science.
