Causes with material continuity

Biology and Philosophy 36 (6):1-17 (2021)
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Abstract

Recent philosophical work on causation has focused on distinctions across types of causal relationships. This paper argues for another distinction that has yet to receive attention in this work. This distinction has to do with whether causal relationships have “material continuity,” which refers to the reliable movement of material from cause to effect. This paper provides an analysis of material continuity and argues that causal relationships with this feature are associated with a unique explanatory perspective, are studied with distinct causal investigative methods, and provide different types of causal control over their effects.

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Lauren N. Ross
University of California, Irvine

Citations of this work

Cascade versus Mechanism: The Diversity of Causal Structure in Science.Lauren N. Ross - forthcoming - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science.
Coherent Causal Control: A New Distinction within Causation.Marcel Weber - 2022 - European Journal for Philosophy of Science 12 (4):69.

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References found in this work

Human Knowledge: Its Scope and Limits.Bertrand Russell - 1948 - London and New York: Routledge.
Mental causation.Stephen Yablo - 1992 - Philosophical Review 101 (2):245-280.
Causal explanation.David Lewis - 1986 - In Philosophical Papers, Volume II. New York, US: Oxford University Press. pp. 214-240.

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