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Relevance, not Invariance, Explanatoriness, not Manipulability: Discussion of Woodward on Explanatory Relevance.

Imbert, Cyrille (2012) Relevance, not Invariance, Explanatoriness, not Manipulability: Discussion of Woodward on Explanatory Relevance. In: UNSPECIFIED.

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Abstract

In Woodward's causal model of explanation, explanatory information is information that is relevant to manipulation and control and that affords to change the value of some
target explanandum variable by intervening on some other. Accordingly, the depth of an explanation is evaluated through the size of the domain of invariance of the
generalization involved.

In this paper, I argue that Woodward's treatment of explanatory relevance in terms of invariant causal relations is still wanting and suggest to evaluate the depth of an explanation through the size of the domain of circumstances that it designates as leaving the explanandum unchanged.


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Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item (UNSPECIFIED)
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Imbert, Cyrillecyrille.imbert@univ-lorraine.fr
Keywords: explanation - Woodward - invariance - causal relations - causal explanation - depth - explanatory relevance - manipulability - control
Subjects: General Issues > Causation
General Issues > Explanation
Depositing User: Cyrille Imbert
Date Deposited: 28 Jul 2012 16:22
Last Modified: 28 Jul 2012 16:22
Item ID: 9254
Subjects: General Issues > Causation
General Issues > Explanation
Date: January 2012
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/9254

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