Causation in Science

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Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 1400889294
Total Pages : 221 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (8 download)

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Book Synopsis Causation in Science by : Yemima Ben-Menahem

Download or read book Causation in Science written by Yemima Ben-Menahem and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2018-06-12 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the role of causal constraints in science, shifting our attention from causal relations between individual events--the focus of most philosophical treatments of causation—to a broad family of concepts and principles generating constraints on possible change. Yemima Ben-Menahem looks at determinism, locality, stability, symmetry principles, conservation laws, and the principle of least action—causal constraints that serve to distinguish events and processes that our best scientific theories mandate or allow from those they rule out. Ben-Menahem's approach reveals that causation is just as relevant to explaining why certain events fail to occur as it is to explaining events that do occur. She investigates the conceptual differences between, and interrelations of, members of the causal family, thereby clarifying problems at the heart of the philosophy of science. Ben-Menahem argues that the distinction between determinism and stability is pertinent to the philosophy of history and the foundations of statistical mechanics, and that the interplay of determinism and locality is crucial for understanding quantum mechanics. Providing historical perspective, she traces the causal constraints of contemporary science to traditional intuitions about causation, and demonstrates how the teleological appearance of some constraints is explained away in current scientific theories such as quantum mechanics. Causation in Science represents a bold challenge to both causal eliminativism and causal reductionism—the notions that causation has no place in science and that higher-level causal claims are reducible to the causal claims of fundamental physics.

Causality in the Sciences

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Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199574138
Total Pages : 953 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (995 download)

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Book Synopsis Causality in the Sciences by : Phyllis McKay Illari

Download or read book Causality in the Sciences written by Phyllis McKay Illari and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2011-03-17 with total page 953 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why do ideas of how mechanisms relate to causality and probability differ so much across the sciences? Can progress in understanding the tools of causal inference in some sciences lead to progress in others? This book tackles these questions and others concerning the use of causality in the sciences.

Mechanism and Causality in Biology and Economics

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Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 9400724543
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (7 download)

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Book Synopsis Mechanism and Causality in Biology and Economics by : Hsiang-Ke Chao

Download or read book Mechanism and Causality in Biology and Economics written by Hsiang-Ke Chao and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-07-31 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume addresses fundamental issues in the philosophy of science in the context of two most intriguing fields: biology and economics. Written by authorities and experts in the philosophy of biology and economics, Mechanism and Causality in Biology and Economics provides a structured study of the concepts of mechanism and causality in these disciplines and draws careful juxtapositions between philosophical apparatus and scientific practice. By exploring the issues that are most salient to the contemporary philosophies of biology and economics and by presenting comparative analyses, the book serves as a platform not only for gaining mutual understanding between scientists and philosophers of the life sciences and those of the social sciences, but also for sharing interdisciplinary research that combines both philosophical concepts in both fields. The book begins by defining the concepts of mechanism and causality in biology and economics, respectively. The second and third parts investigate philosophical perspectives of various causal and mechanistic issues in scientific practice in the two fields. These two sections include chapters on causal issues in the theory of evolution; experiments and scientific discovery; representation of causal relations and mechanism by models in economics. The concluding section presents interdisciplinary studies of various topics concerning extrapolation of life sciences and social sciences, including chapters on the philosophical investigation of conjoining biological and economic analyses with, respectively, demography, medicine and sociology.

Causation in Science and the Methods of Scientific Discovery

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 0198733666
Total Pages : 295 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (987 download)

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Book Synopsis Causation in Science and the Methods of Scientific Discovery by : Rani Lill Anjum

Download or read book Causation in Science and the Methods of Scientific Discovery written by Rani Lill Anjum and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Causal questions are relevant to all sciences and social sciences, yet how we discover causal connections is no easy matter. Indeed, the choice of methods concerns the correct norms for the empirical study of the world. In this text, two experts on causation relate philosophical theory to scientific practice and propose nine new norms of discovery.

Causality

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Publisher : OUP Oxford
ISBN 13 : 0191639680
Total Pages : 493 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (916 download)

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Book Synopsis Causality by : Phyllis Illari

Download or read book Causality written by Phyllis Illari and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2014-10-02 with total page 493 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Head hits cause brain damage - but not always. Should we ban sport to protect athletes? Exposure to electromagnetic fields is strongly associated with cancer development - does that mean exposure causes cancer? Should we encourage old fashioned communication instead of mobile phones to reduce cancer rates? According to popular wisdom, the Mediterranean diet keeps you healthy. Is this belief scientifically sound? Should public health bodies encourage consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables? Severe financial constraints on research and public policy, media pressure, and public anxiety make such questions of immense current concern not just to philosophers but to scientists, governments, public bodies, and the general public. In the last decade there has been an explosion of theorizing about causality in philosophy, and also in the sciences. This literature is both fascinating and important, but it is involved and highly technical. This makes it inaccessible to many who would like to use it, philosophers and scientists alike. This book is an introduction to philosophy of causality - one that is highly accessible: to scientists unacquainted with philosophy, to philosophers unacquainted with science, and to anyone else lost in the labyrinth of philosophical theories of causality. It presents key philosophical accounts, concepts and methods, using examples from the sciences to show how to apply philosophical debates to scientific problems.

Revitalizing Causality

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Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1134193661
Total Pages : 282 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (341 download)

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Book Synopsis Revitalizing Causality by : Ruth Groff

Download or read book Revitalizing Causality written by Ruth Groff and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2007-12-18 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This cutting edge collection of new and previously published articles by philosophers and social scientists addresses just what it means to invoke causal mechanisms, or powers, in the context of offering a causal explanation. A unique collection, it offers the reader various disciplinary and inter-disciplinary divides, helping to stake out a new, neo-Aristotelian position within contemporary debate.

Causality and Causal Modelling in the Social Sciences

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Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 1402088175
Total Pages : 236 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (2 download)

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Book Synopsis Causality and Causal Modelling in the Social Sciences by : Federica Russo

Download or read book Causality and Causal Modelling in the Social Sciences written by Federica Russo and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2008-09-18 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This investigation into causal modelling presents the rationale of causality, i.e. the notion that guides causal reasoning in causal modelling. It is argued that causal models are regimented by a rationale of variation, nor of regularity neither invariance, thus breaking down the dominant Human paradigm. The notion of variation is shown to be embedded in the scheme of reasoning behind various causal models. It is also shown to be latent – yet fundamental – in many philosophical accounts. Moreover, it has significant consequences for methodological issues: the warranty of the causal interpretation of causal models, the levels of causation, the characterisation of mechanisms, and the interpretation of probability. This book offers a novel philosophical and methodological approach to causal reasoning in causal modelling and provides the reader with the tools to be up to date about various issues causality rises in social science.

Quantum Causality

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Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 9048124034
Total Pages : 240 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (481 download)

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Book Synopsis Quantum Causality by : Peter J. Riggs

Download or read book Quantum Causality written by Peter J. Riggs and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2009-06-05 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There is no sharp dividing line between the foundations of physics and philosophy of physics. This is especially true for quantum mechanics. The debate on the interpretation of quantum mechanics has raged in both the scientific and philosophical communities since the 1920s and continues to this day. (We shall understand the unqualified term ‘quantum mechanics’ to mean the mathematical formalism, i. e. laws and rules by which empirical predictions and theoretical advances are made. ) There is a popular rendering of quantum mechanics which has been publicly endorsed by some well known physicists which says that quantum mechanics is not only 1 more weird than we imagine but is weirder than we can imagine. Although it is readily granted that quantum mechanics has produced some strange and counter-intuitive results, the case will be presented in this book that quantum mechanics is not as weird as we might have been led to believe! The prevailing theory of quantum mechanics is called Orthodox Quantum Theory (also known as the Copenhagen Interpretation). Orthodox Quantum Theory endows a special status on measurement processes by requiring an intervention of an observer or an observer’s proxy (e. g. a measuring apparatus). The placement of the observer (or proxy) is somewhat arbitrary which introduces a degree of subjectivity. Orthodox Quantum Theory only predicts probabilities for measured values of physical quantities. It is essentially an instrumental theory, i. e.

Making Things Happen

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Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0198035330
Total Pages : 419 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (98 download)

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Book Synopsis Making Things Happen by : James Woodward

Download or read book Making Things Happen written by James Woodward and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2005-10-27 with total page 419 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Making Things Happen, James Woodward develops a new and ambitious comprehensive theory of causation and explanation that draws on literature from a variety of disciplines and which applies to a wide variety of claims in science and everyday life. His theory is a manipulationist account, proposing that causal and explanatory relationships are relationships that are potentially exploitable for purposes of manipulation and control. This account has its roots in the commonsense idea that causes are means for bringing about effects; but it also draws on a long tradition of work in experimental design, econometrics, and statistics. Woodward shows how these ideas may be generalized to other areas of science from the social scientific and biomedical contexts for which they were originally designed. He also provides philosophical foundations for the manipulationist approach, drawing out its implications, comparing it with alternative approaches, and defending it from common criticisms. In doing so, he shows how the manipulationist account both illuminates important features of successful causal explanation in the natural and social sciences, and avoids the counterexamples and difficulties that infect alternative approaches, from the deductive-nomological model onwards. Making Things Happen will interest philosophers working in the philosophy of science, the philosophy of social science, and metaphysics, and as well as anyone interested in causation, explanation, and scientific methodology.

The Why of Things

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Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231535457
Total Pages : 297 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (315 download)

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Book Synopsis The Why of Things by : Peter V. Rabins

Download or read book The Why of Things written by Peter V. Rabins and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2013-08-20 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why was there a meltdown at the Fukushima power plant? Why do some people get cancer and not others? Why is global warming happening? Why does one person get depressed in the face of life's vicissitudes while another finds resilience? Questions like these—questions of causality—form the basis of modern scientific inquiry, posing profound intellectual and methodological challenges for researchers in the physical, natural, biomedical, and social sciences. In this groundbreaking book, noted psychiatrist and author Peter Rabins offers a conceptual framework for analyzing daunting questions of causality. Navigating a lively intellectual voyage between the shoals of strict reductionism and relativism, Rabins maps a three-facet model of causality and applies it to a variety of questions in science, medicine, economics, and more. Throughout this book, Rabins situates his argument within relevant scientific contexts, such as quantum mechanics, cybernetics, chaos theory, and epigenetics. A renowned communicator of complex concepts and scientific ideas, Rabins helps readers stretch their minds beyond the realm of popular literary tipping points, blinks, and freakonomic explanations of the world.

Causality, Probability, and Medicine

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Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317564286
Total Pages : 248 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (175 download)

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Book Synopsis Causality, Probability, and Medicine by : Donald Gillies

Download or read book Causality, Probability, and Medicine written by Donald Gillies and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-08-15 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why is understanding causation so important in philosophy and the sciences? Should causation be defined in terms of probability? Whilst causation plays a major role in theories and concepts of medicine, little attempt has been made to connect causation and probability with medicine itself. Causality, Probability, and Medicine is one of the first books to apply philosophical reasoning about causality to important topics and debates in medicine. Donald Gillies provides a thorough introduction to and assessment of competing theories of causality in philosophy, including action-related theories, causality and mechanisms, and causality and probability. Throughout the book he applies them to important discoveries and theories within medicine, such as germ theory; tuberculosis and cholera; smoking and heart disease; the first ever randomized controlled trial designed to test the treatment of tuberculosis; the growing area of philosophy of evidence-based medicine; and philosophy of epidemiology. This book will be of great interest to students and researchers in philosophy of science and philosophy of medicine, as well as those working in medicine, nursing and related health disciplines where a working knowledge of causality and probability is required.

Causality and Modern Science

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Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1351529757
Total Pages : 424 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (515 download)

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Book Synopsis Causality and Modern Science by : Mario Bunge

Download or read book Causality and Modern Science written by Mario Bunge and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-07-05 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The causal problem has become topical once again. While we are no longer causalists or believers in the universal truth of the causal principle we continue to think of causes and effects, as well as of causal and noncausal relations among them. Instead of becoming indeterminists we have enlarged determinism to include noncausal categories. And we are still in the process of characterizing our basic concepts and principles concerning causes and effects with the help of exact tools. This is because we want to explain, not just describe, the ways of things. The causal principle is not the only means of understanding the world but it is one of them.The demand for a fourth edition of this distinguished book on the subject of causality is clear evidence that this principle continues to be an important and popular area of philosophic enquiry. Non-technical and clearly written, this book focuses on the ontological problem of causality, with specific emphasis on the place of the causal principle in modern science. Mario Bunge first defines the terminology employed and describes various formulations of the causal principle. He then examines the two primary critiques of causality, the empiricist and the romantic, as a prelude to the detailed explanation of the actual assertions of causal determinism.Bunge analyzes the function of the causal principle in science, touching on such subjects as scientific law, scientific explanation, and scientific prediction. In so doing, he offers an education to layman and specialist alike on the history of a concept and its opponents. Professor William A. Wallace, author of Causality and Scientific Explanation said of an earlier edition of this work: "I regard it as a truly seminal work in this field."

Causation and Laws of Nature

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Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1134150687
Total Pages : 273 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (341 download)

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Book Synopsis Causation and Laws of Nature by : Max Kistler

Download or read book Causation and Laws of Nature written by Max Kistler and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2006-09-27 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is a causal relation? -- Laws of nature and universal generalisations -- Applicability conditions and the concept of strict law -- Consequences -- The nomological theory of causation and causal responsibility -- Efficacious properties and the instantiation of laws -- Causal responsibility and its applications.

Time and Causality Across the Sciences

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Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1108476678
Total Pages : 273 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (84 download)

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Book Synopsis Time and Causality Across the Sciences by : Samantha Kleinberg

Download or read book Time and Causality Across the Sciences written by Samantha Kleinberg and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-09-26 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores the critical role time plays in our understanding of causality, across psychology, biology, physics and the social sciences.

Because Without Cause

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Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0190269480
Total Pages : 513 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (92 download)

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Book Synopsis Because Without Cause by : Marc Lange

Download or read book Because Without Cause written by Marc Lange and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 513 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Not all scientific explanations work by describing causal connections between events or the world's overall causal structure. In addition, mathematicians regard some proofs as explaining why the theorems being proved do in fact hold. This book proposes new philosophical accounts of many kinds of non-causal explanations in science and mathematics.

Philosophical and Scientific Perspectives on Downward Causation

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Author :
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 1317271440
Total Pages : 334 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (172 download)

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Book Synopsis Philosophical and Scientific Perspectives on Downward Causation by : Michele Paolini Paoletti

Download or read book Philosophical and Scientific Perspectives on Downward Causation written by Michele Paolini Paoletti and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2017-02-17 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Downward causation plays a fundamental role in many theories of metaphysics and philosophy of mind. It is strictly connected with many topics in philosophy, including but not limited to: emergence, mental causation, the nature of causation, the nature of causal powers and dispositions, laws of nature, and the possibility of ontological and epistemic reductions. Philosophical and Scientific Perspectives on Downward Causation brings together experts from different fields—including William Bechtel, Stewart Clark and Tom Lancaster, Carl Gillett, John Heil, Robin F. Hendry, Max Kistler, Stephen Mumford and Rani Lill Anjum —who delve into classic and unexplored lines of philosophical inquiry related to downward causation. It critically assesses the possibility of downward causation given different ontological assumptions and explores the connection between downward causation and the metaphysics of causation and dispositions. Finally, it presents different cases of downward causation in empirical fields such as physics, chemistry, biology and the neurosciences. This volume is both a useful introduction and a collection of original contributions on this fascinating and hotly debated philosophical topic.

Evolutionary Causation

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Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262039923
Total Pages : 361 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (62 download)

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Book Synopsis Evolutionary Causation by : Tobias Uller

Download or read book Evolutionary Causation written by Tobias Uller and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2019-09-03 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive treatment of the concept of causation in evolutionary biology that makes clear its central role in both historical and contemporary debates. Most scientific explanations are causal. This is certainly the case in evolutionary biology, which seeks to explain the diversity of life and the adaptive fit between organisms and their surroundings. The nature of causation in evolutionary biology, however, is contentious. How causation is understood shapes the structure of evolutionary theory, and historical and contemporary debates in evolutionary biology have revolved around the nature of causation. Despite its centrality, and differing views on the subject, the major conceptual issues regarding the nature of causation in evolutionary biology are rarely addressed. This volume fills the gap, bringing together biologists and philosophers to offer a comprehensive, interdisciplinary treatment of evolutionary causation. Contributors first address biological motivations for rethinking evolutionary causation, considering the ways in which development, extra-genetic inheritance, and niche construction challenge notions of cause and process in evolution, and describing how alternative representations of evolutionary causation can shed light on a range of evolutionary problems. Contributors then analyze evolutionary causation from a philosophical perspective, considering such topics as causal entanglement, the commingling of organism and environment, and the relationship between causation and information. Contributors John A. Baker, Lynn Chiu, David I. Dayan, Renée A. Duckworth, Marcus W Feldman, Susan A. Foster, Melissa A. Graham, Heikki Helanterä, Kevin N. Laland, Armin P. Moczek, John Odling-Smee, Jun Otsuka, Massimo Pigliucci, Arnaud Pocheville, Arlin Stoltzfus, Karola Stotz, Sonia E. Sultan, Christoph Thies, Tobias Uller, Denis M. Walsh, Richard A. Watson