Downward Causation

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Downward Causation

Author : Peter Bøgh Andersen
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 366 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis Downward Causation by : Peter Bøgh Andersen

Download or read book Downward Causation written by Peter Bøgh Andersen and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Downward causation is found in two-level and multi-level systems with complex behaviour generated by many components interacting in a simple or complex way. The term was coined by the social psychologist and philosopher Donald T. Campbell, who asked the question: If many small-scale interactions can create emergent large-scale patterns, can large-scale patterns re-influence the small-scale interactions that generated them? This has led to many further questions, among them: Does the cell as a system reorganise the biochemical processes inside it in a new way? Do psychosomatic illnesses exist? Can life change biochemical laws? Can mind change the body? The chapters in this comprehensive book address these questions from the viewpoints of different disciplines. Part 1 contains a classification of positions regarding 'downward causation', Part 2 covers physics, Part 3 covers biology and psychology, Part 4 covers social and communicative systems, and Part 5 covers general philosophy.

Philosophical and Scientific Perspectives on Downward Causation

Author : Michele Paolini Paoletti
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.

Downward Causation and the Neurobiology of Free Will

Author : Nancey Murphy
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 3642032052
Total Pages : 286 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (42 download)

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Book Synopsis Downward Causation and the Neurobiology of Free Will by : Nancey Murphy

Download or read book Downward Causation and the Neurobiology of Free Will written by Nancey Murphy and published by Springer. This book was released on 2009-09-30 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How is free will possible in the light of the physical and chemical underpinnings of brain activity and recent neurobiological experiments? How can the emergence of complexity in hierarchical systems such as the brain, based at the lower levels in physical interactions, lead to something like genuine free will? The nature of our understanding of free will in the light of present-day neuroscience is becoming increasingly important because of remarkable discoveries on the topic being made by neuroscientists at the present time, on the one hand, and its crucial importance for the way we view ourselves as human beings, on the other. A key tool in understanding how free will may arise in this context is the idea of downward causation in complex systems, happening coterminously with bottom up causation, to form an integral whole. Top-down causation is usually neglected, and is therefore emphasized in the other part of the book’s title. The concept is explored in depth, as are the ethical and legal implications of our understanding of free will. This book arises out of a workshop held in California in April of 2007, which was chaired by Dr. Christof Koch. It was unusual in terms of the breadth of people involved: they included physicists, neuroscientists, psychiatrists, philosophers, and theologians. This enabled the meeting, and hence the resulting book, to attain a rather broader perspective on the issue than is often attained at academic symposia. The book includes contributions by Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, George F. R. Ellis , Christopher D. Frith, Mark Hallett, David Hodgson, Owen D. Jones, Alicia Juarrero, J. A. Scott Kelso, Christof Koch, Hans Küng, Hakwan C. Lau, Dean Mobbs, Nancey Murphy, William Newsome, Timothy O’Connor, Sean A.. Spence, and Evan Thompson.

Top-Down Causation and Emergence

Author : Jan Voosholz
Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 3030718999
Total Pages : 412 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (37 download)

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Book Synopsis Top-Down Causation and Emergence by : Jan Voosholz

Download or read book Top-Down Causation and Emergence written by Jan Voosholz and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-08-06 with total page 412 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents the latest research, conducted by leading philosophers and scientists from various fields, on the topic of top-down causation. The chapters combine to form a unique, interdisciplinary perspective, drawing upon George Ellis's extensive research and novel perspectives on topics including downwards causation, weak and strong emergence, mental causation, biological relativity, effective field theory and levels in nature. The collection also serves as a Festschrift in honour of George Ellis' 80th birthday. The extensive and interdisciplinary scope of this book makes it vital reading for anyone interested in the work of George Ellis and current research on the topics of causation and emergence.

Emergence

Author : Mariusz Tabaczek
Publisher : University of Notre Dame Pess
ISBN 13 : 0268105006
Total Pages : 531 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (681 download)

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Book Synopsis Emergence by : Mariusz Tabaczek

Download or read book Emergence written by Mariusz Tabaczek and published by University of Notre Dame Pess. This book was released on 2019-07-25 with total page 531 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the last several decades, the theories of emergence and downward causation have become arguably the most popular conceptual tools in scientific and philosophical attempts to explain the nature and character of global organization observed in various biological phenomena, from individual cell organization to ecological systems. The theory of emergence acknowledges the reality of layered strata or levels of systems, which are consequences of the appearance of an interacting range of novel qualities. A closer analysis of emergentism, however, reveals a number of philosophical problems facing this theory. In Emergence, Mariusz Tabaczek offers a thorough analysis of these problems and a constructive proposal of a new metaphysical foundation for both the classic downward causation-based and the new dynamical depth accounts of emergence theory, developed by Terrence Deacon. Tabaczek suggests ways in which both theoretical models of emergentism can be grounded in the classical and the new (dispositionalist) versions of Aristotelianism. This book will have an eager audience in metaphysicians working both in the analytic and the Thomistic traditions, as well as philosophers of science and biology interested in emergence theory and causation.

Studies in the Philosophy of Biology

Author : Francisco José Ayala
Publisher : MacMillan
ISBN 13 : 9780333148600
Total Pages : 390 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (486 download)

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Book Synopsis Studies in the Philosophy of Biology by : Francisco José Ayala

Download or read book Studies in the Philosophy of Biology written by Francisco José Ayala and published by MacMillan. This book was released on 1974 with total page 390 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Proceedings of the conference on Problems of reduction in biology held at the Study and Conference Center of the Rockefeller Foundation in Bellagio, Italy, from 9 to 16 September 1972.

How Can Physics Underlie the Mind?

Author : George Ellis
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 366249809X
Total Pages : 502 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (624 download)

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Book Synopsis How Can Physics Underlie the Mind? by : George Ellis

Download or read book How Can Physics Underlie the Mind? written by George Ellis and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-05-31 with total page 502 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Physics underlies all complexity, including our own existence: how is this possible? How can our own lives emerge from interactions of electrons, protons, and neutrons? This book considers the interaction of physical and non-physical causation in complex systems such as living beings, and in particular in the human brain, relating this to the emergence of higher levels of complexity with real causal powers. In particular it explores the idea of top-down causation, which is the key effect allowing the emergence of true complexity and also enables the causal efficacy of non-physical entities, including the value of money, social conventions, and ethical choices.

The Neural Basis of Free Will

Author : Peter Tse
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262019108
Total Pages : 473 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (62 download)

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Book Synopsis The Neural Basis of Free Will by : Peter Tse

Download or read book The Neural Basis of Free Will written by Peter Tse and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2013 with total page 473 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The issues of mental causation, consciousness, and free will have vexed philosophers since Plato. This book examines these unresolved issues from a neuroscientific perspective. In contrast with philosophers who use logic rather than data to argue whether mental causation or consciousness can exist given unproven first assumptions, Tse proposes that we instead listen to what neurons have to say. Because the brain must already embody a solution to the mind--body problem, why not focus on how the brain actually realizes mental causation? Tse draws on exciting recent neuroscientific data concerning how informational causation is realized in physical causation at the level of NMDA receptors, synapses, dendrites, neurons, and neuronal circuits. He argues that a particular kind of strong free will and downward mental causation are realized in rapid synaptic plasticity. Recent neurophysiological breakthroughs reveal that neurons function as criterial assessors of their inputs, which then change the criteria that will make other neurons fire in the future. Such informational causation cannot change the physical basis of information realized in the present, but it can change the physical basis of information that may be realized in the immediate future. This gets around the standard argument against free will centered on the impossibility of self-causation. Tse explores the ways that mental causation and qualia might be realized in this kind of neuronal and associated information-processing architecture, and considers the psychological and philosophical implications of having such an architecture realized in our brains.

Downward Causation and the Neurobiology of Free Will

Author : Nancey Murphy
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 3642032044
Total Pages : 286 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (42 download)

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Book Synopsis Downward Causation and the Neurobiology of Free Will by : Nancey Murphy

Download or read book Downward Causation and the Neurobiology of Free Will written by Nancey Murphy and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2009-09-23 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How is free will possible in the light of the physical and chemical underpinnings of brain activity and recent neurobiological experiments? How can the emergence of complexity in hierarchical systems such as the brain, based at the lower levels in physical interactions, lead to something like genuine free will? The nature of our understanding of free will in the light of present-day neuroscience is becoming increasingly important because of remarkable discoveries on the topic being made by neuroscientists at the present time, on the one hand, and its crucial importance for the way we view ourselves as human beings, on the other. A key tool in understanding how free will may arise in this context is the idea of downward causation in complex systems, happening coterminously with bottom up causation, to form an integral whole. Top-down causation is usually neglected, and is therefore emphasized in the other part of the book’s title. The concept is explored in depth, as are the ethical and legal implications of our understanding of free will. This book arises out of a workshop held in California in April of 2007, which was chaired by Dr. Christof Koch. It was unusual in terms of the breadth of people involved: they included physicists, neuroscientists, psychiatrists, philosophers, and theologians. This enabled the meeting, and hence the resulting book, to attain a rather broader perspective on the issue than is often attained at academic symposia. The book includes contributions by Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, George F. R. Ellis , Christopher D. Frith, Mark Hallett, David Hodgson, Owen D. Jones, Alicia Juarrero, J. A. Scott Kelso, Christof Koch, Hans Küng, Hakwan C. Lau, Dean Mobbs, Nancey Murphy, William Newsome, Timothy O’Connor, Sean A.. Spence, and Evan Thompson.

Brains Top Down

Author : Gennaro Auletta
Publisher : World Scientific
ISBN 13 : 9814412465
Total Pages : 376 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (144 download)

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Book Synopsis Brains Top Down by : Gennaro Auletta

Download or read book Brains Top Down written by Gennaro Auletta and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2013 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents an overview of some of the main schools of thought as well as current research trends in neuroscience. It focuses on neural top-down causation applied to hot topics like consciousness, emotions, the self and the will, action and behavior, neural networks, brains and society.

Philosophical and Scientific Perspectives on Downward Causation

Author : Michele Paolini Paoletti
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317271432
Total Pages : 507 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 Routledge. This book was released on 2017-02-17 with total page 507 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.

Emergence or Reduction?

Author : Ansgar Beckermann
Publisher : Walter de Gruyter
ISBN 13 : 3110870088
Total Pages : 325 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (18 download)

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Book Synopsis Emergence or Reduction? by : Ansgar Beckermann

Download or read book Emergence or Reduction? written by Ansgar Beckermann and published by Walter de Gruyter. This book was released on 2011-07-20 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Reduction and Emergence in Science and Philosophy

Author : Carl Gillett
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1316776646
Total Pages : 401 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (167 download)

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Book Synopsis Reduction and Emergence in Science and Philosophy by : Carl Gillett

Download or read book Reduction and Emergence in Science and Philosophy written by Carl Gillett and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2016-09-08 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Grand debates over reduction and emergence are playing out across the sciences, but these debates have reached a stalemate, with both sides declaring victory on empirical grounds. In this book, Carl Gillett provides theoretical frameworks with which to understand these debates, illuminating both the novel positions of scientific reductionists and emergentists and the recent empirical advances that drive these new views. Gillett also highlights the flaws in existing philosophical frameworks and reorients the discussion to reflect the new scientific advances and issues, including the nature of 'parts' and 'wholes', the character of aggregation, and thus the continuity of nature itself. Most importantly, Gillett shows how disputes about concrete scientific cases are empirically resolvable and hence how we can break the scientific stalemate. Including a detailed glossary of key terms, this volume will be valuable for researchers and advanced students of the philosophy of science and metaphysics, and scientific researchers working in the area.

Institutions and Evolution of Capitalism

Author : Francesca Gagliardi
Publisher : Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1785365002
Total Pages : 385 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (853 download)

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Book Synopsis Institutions and Evolution of Capitalism by : Francesca Gagliardi

Download or read book Institutions and Evolution of Capitalism written by Francesca Gagliardi and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2019 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In just over 30 years, Geoff Hodgson has made substantial contributions to institutional economics, evolutionary economics, economic methodology, the history of economic thought and social theory. To mark his seminal work, this volume brings together original contributions by world-leading scholars in specific areas that have played a significant role in influencing his thinking or represent key debates to which he has contributed. Building on some of the most significant philosophical and methodological foundations underlying Hodgson's work, the volume is organised around the recurring themes of institutions, evolution and capitalism.

The Causal Exclusion Problem

Author : Dwayne Moore
Publisher : American University Studies
ISBN 13 : 9781433122675
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (226 download)

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Book Synopsis The Causal Exclusion Problem by : Dwayne Moore

Download or read book The Causal Exclusion Problem written by Dwayne Moore and published by American University Studies. This book was released on 2014 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Causal Exclusion Problem, the popular strategy of abandoning any one of the principles constituting the causal exclusion problem is considered, but ultimately rejected. The metaphysical foundations undergirding the causal exclusion problem are then explored, revealing that the causal exclusion problem cannot be dislodged by undermining its metaphysical foundations - as some are in the habit of doing. Finally, the significant difficulties associated with the bevy of contemporary nonreductive solutions, from supervenience to emergentism, are expanded upon. While conducting this survey of contemporary options, however, two novel approaches are introduced, both of which may resolve the causal exclusion problem from within a nonreductive physicalist paradigm. The Causal Exclusion Problem, which relentlessly motivates the vexing causal exclusion problem and exhaustively surveys its metaphysical assumptions and contemporary responses, is ideal for an advanced undergraduate or graduate course in the philosophy of mind.

Descartes on Causation

Author : Tad M. Schmaltz
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0198043902
Total Pages : 250 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (98 download)

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Book Synopsis Descartes on Causation by : Tad M. Schmaltz

Download or read book Descartes on Causation written by Tad M. Schmaltz and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2007-11-01 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a systematic study of Descartes' theory of causation and its relation to the medieval and early modern scholastic philosophy that provides its proper historical context. The argument presented here is that even though Descartes offered a dualistic ontology that differs radically from what we find in scholasticism, his views on causation were profoundly influenced by scholastic thought on this issue. This influence is evident not only in his affirmation in the Meditations of the abstract scholastic axioms that a cause must contain the reality of its effects and that conservation does not differ in reality from creation, but also in the details of the accounts of body-body interaction in his physics, of mind-body interaction in his psychology, and of the causation that he took to be involved in free human action. In contrast to those who have read Descartes as endorsing the "occasionalist" conclusion that God is the only real cause, a central thesis of this study is that he accepted what in the context of scholastic debates regarding causation is the antipode of occasionalism, namely, the view that creatures rather than God are the causal source of natural change. What emerges from the defense of this interpretation of Descartes is a new understanding of his contribution to modern thought on causation.

Rethinking Order

Author : Nancy Cartwright
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1474244084
Total Pages : 207 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (742 download)

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Book Synopsis Rethinking Order by : Nancy Cartwright

Download or read book Rethinking Order written by Nancy Cartwright and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2016-06-30 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents a radical new picture of natural order. The Newtonian idea of a cosmos ruled by universal and exceptionless laws has been superseded; replaced by a conception of nature as a realm of diverse powers, potencies, and dispositions, a 'dappled world'. There is order in nature, but it is more local, diverse, piecemeal, open, and emergent than Newton imagined. In each chapter expert authors expound the historical context of the idea of laws of nature, and explore the diverse sorts of order actually presupposed by work in physics, biology, and the social sciences. They consider how human freedom might be understood, and explore how Newton's idea of a 'universal designer' might be revised, in this new context. They argue that there is not one unified totalizing program of science, aiming at the completion of one closed causal system. We live in an ordered universe, but we need to rethink the classical idea of the 'laws of nature' in a more dynamic and creatively diverse way.