Reutlinger, Alexander (2012) Getting Rid of Interventions. [Preprint]
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Abstract
According to James Woodward’s influential interventionist account of causation, X is a cause of Y iff, roughly, there is a possible intervention on X that changes Y. Woodward requires that interventions be merely logically possible. I will argue for two claims against this modal character of interventions: First, merely logically possible interventions are dispensable for the semantic project of providing an account of the meaning of causal statements. If interventions are indeed dispensable, the interventionist theory collapses into (some sort of) a counterfactual theory of causation. Thus, the interventionist theory is not tenable as a theory of causation in its own right. Second, if one maintains that merely logically possible interventions are indispensable, then interventions with this modal character lead to the fatal result that interventionist counterfactuals are evaluated inadequately. Consequently, interventionists offer an inadequate theory of causation. I suggest that if we are concerned with explicating causal concepts and stating the truth-conditions of causal claims we best get rid of Woodwardian interventions.
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| Item Type: | Preprint | ||||||
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| Keywords: | interventionist theory of causation, counterfactuals | ||||||
| Subjects: | General Issues > Causation General Issues > Laws of Nature |
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| Depositing User: | Alexander Reutlinger | ||||||
| Date Deposited: | 17 Dec 2013 17:09 | ||||||
| Last Modified: | 17 Dec 2013 17:09 | ||||||
| Item ID: | 10146 | ||||||
| Subjects: | General Issues > Causation General Issues > Laws of Nature |
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| Date: | 2012 | ||||||
| URI: | https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/10146 |
Available Versions of this Item
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Getting Rid of Interventions. (deposited 27 Jan 2012 18:12)
- Getting Rid of Interventions. (deposited 17 Dec 2013 17:09) [Currently Displayed]
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