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The Manipulability Account of Causation Applied to Typical Physical Systems

Vervoort, Louis (2014) The Manipulability Account of Causation Applied to Typical Physical Systems. Lato Sensu, revue de la Société de philosophie des sciences, 1 (1). pp. 63-70. ISSN 2295-8029

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Abstract

In the following we will apply the manipulability theory of causation of
Woodward (2003) to physical systems, and show that, in the context of physical systems, the theory can be simplified. Elaborating on an argument by Cartwright, we will argue that the notions of ‘modularity’ and ‘intervention’ of the cited work should be adapted for typical physical systems, in order to take into account the coupling of system equations. We will show that this allows the reduction of all cause types discussed in Woodward (2003) to only one, namely that of ‘total cause’. We therefore claim that the manipulability account can be drastically simplified when applied to coupled physical systems


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Item Type: Published Article or Volume
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Vervoort, Louisvervoort.louis@courrier.uqam.ca
Keywords: cause causation manipulability modularity physical system coupling
Subjects: General Issues > Causation
Specific Sciences > Physics
Depositing User: Lato Sensu
Date Deposited: 25 Feb 2017 15:57
Last Modified: 25 Feb 2017 15:57
Item ID: 12840
Journal or Publication Title: Lato Sensu, revue de la Société de philosophie des sciences
Publisher: Société de philosophie des sciences
Official URL: http://sites.uclouvain.be/latosensu/index.php/lato...
DOI or Unique Handle: 10.20416/lsrsps.v1i1.43
Subjects: General Issues > Causation
Specific Sciences > Physics
Date: July 2014
Page Range: pp. 63-70
Volume: 1
Number: 1
ISSN: 2295-8029
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/12840

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