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Antireductionist Interventionism

Stern, Reuben and Eva, Benjamin (2020) Antireductionist Interventionism. [Preprint]

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Abstract

Kim's causal exclusion argument purports to demonstrate that the non-reductive physicalist must treat mental properties (and macro-level properties in general) as causally inert. A number of authors have attempted to resist Kim's conclusion by utilizing the conceptual resources of Woodward's (2005) interventionist conception of causation. The viability of these responses has been challenged by Gebharter (2017a), who argues that the causal exclusion argument is vindicated by the theory of causal Bayesian networks (CBNs). Since the interventionist conception of causation relies crucially on CBNs for its foundations, Gebharter's argument appears to cast significant doubt on interventionism's antireductionist credentials. In the present article, we both (1) demonstrate that Gebharter's CBN-theoretic formulation of the exclusion argument relies on some unmotivated and philosophically significant assumptions (especially regarding the relationship between CBNs and the metaphysics of causal relevance), and (2) use Bayesian networks to develop a general theory of causal inference for multi-level systems that can serve as the foundation for an antireductionist interventionist account of causation.


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Item Type: Preprint
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Stern, Reubenreuben.stern@gmail.com
Eva, Benjaminbenjamin.eva@uni-konstanz.de
Keywords: causation, reductionism, causal Bayes nets, causal exclusion problem, mental causation
Subjects: General Issues > Causation
Depositing User: Dr. Reuben Stern
Date Deposited: 08 Feb 2020 02:39
Last Modified: 08 Feb 2020 02:39
Item ID: 16897
Subjects: General Issues > Causation
Date: 7 February 2020
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/16897

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