PhilSci Archive

Causal Perspectivalism

Price, Huw (2005) Causal Perspectivalism. [Preprint]

[img]
Preview
PDF
CausalPerspectivalism.pdf

Download (278kB)

Abstract

Concepts employed in folk descriptions of the world often turn out to be more perspectival than they seem at first sight, involving previously unrecognised sensitivity to the viewpoint or 'situation' of the user of the concept in question. Often, it is progress in science that reveals such perspectivity, and the deciding factor is that we realise that other creatures would apply the same concepts with different extension, in virtue of differences between their circumstances and ours. In this paper I argue that causal concepts are perspectival in this way, and describe the 'situation' on which they depend in terms of an abstract characterisation of the viewpoint of a deliberating agent. I argue that this approach makes better sense than rivals of the apparent asymmetry and temporal orientation of the causal relation.


Export/Citation: EndNote | BibTeX | Dublin Core | ASCII/Text Citation (Chicago) | HTML Citation | OpenURL
Social Networking:
Share |

Item Type: Preprint
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Price, Huw
Additional Information: Forthcoming in Huw Price and Richard Corry, eds., Causation, Physics and the Constitution of Reality: Russell's Republic Revisited (OUP, 2006)
Keywords: Causation, causality, perspectivalism, time-asymmetry
Subjects: General Issues > Causation
General Issues > Realism/Anti-realism
Depositing User: Prof Huw Price
Date Deposited: 07 Mar 2005
Last Modified: 07 Oct 2010 15:13
Item ID: 2225
Subjects: General Issues > Causation
General Issues > Realism/Anti-realism
Date: March 2005
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/2225

Monthly Views for the past 3 years

Monthly Downloads for the past 3 years

Plum Analytics

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item