Reutlinger, Alexander (2014) Are Causal Facts Really Explanatorily Emergent? Ladyman and Ross on Higher-level Causal Facts and Renormalization Group Explanation. [Preprint]
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Abstract
In their Every Thing Must Go, Ladyman and Ross defend a novel version of Neo-Russellian metaphysics of causation, which falls into three claims: (1) there are no fundamental physical causal facts (orthodox Russellian claim), (2) there are higher-level causal facts of the special sciences, and (3) higher-level causal facts are explanatorily emergent. While accepting claims (1) and (2), I attack claim (3). Ladyman and Ross argue that higher-level causal facts are explanatorily emergent, because (a) certain aspects of these higher-level facts (their universality) can be captured by renormalization group (RG) explanations, and (b) RG explanations are not reductive explanations. However, I argue that RG explanation should be understood as reductive explanations. This result undermines Ladyman and Ross’s RG-based argument for the explanatory emergence of higher-level causal facts.
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| Item Type: | Preprint | ||||||
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| Additional Information: | to appear in Synthese | ||||||
| Keywords: | Emergence Causation Structural Realism Renormalization Group Explanation Special Sciences Russell | ||||||
| Subjects: | General Issues > Causation Specific Sciences > Complex Systems Specific Sciences > Physics > Condensed Matter General Issues > Explanation Specific Sciences > Physics > Statistical Mechanics/Thermodynamics |
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| Depositing User: | Alexander Reutlinger | ||||||
| Date Deposited: | 24 Jul 2014 12:53 | ||||||
| Last Modified: | 24 Jul 2014 12:53 | ||||||
| Item ID: | 10897 | ||||||
| Subjects: | General Issues > Causation Specific Sciences > Complex Systems Specific Sciences > Physics > Condensed Matter General Issues > Explanation Specific Sciences > Physics > Statistical Mechanics/Thermodynamics |
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| Date: | 2014 | ||||||
| URI: | https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/10897 |
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