PhilSci Archive

Causal Foundationalism, Physical Causation, and Difference-Making

Glynn, Luke (2013) Causal Foundationalism, Physical Causation, and Difference-Making. Synthese, 190 (6). pp. 1017-1037. ISSN 1573-0964

[img]
Preview
PDF
Website_3.pdf

Download (412kB)

Abstract

An influential tradition in the philosophy of causation has it that all token causal facts are, or are reducible to, facts about difference-making. Challenges to this tradition have typically focused on pre-emption cases, in which a cause apparently fails to make a difference to its effect. However, a novel challenge to the difference-making approach has recently been issued by Alyssa Ney. Ney defends causal foundationalism, which she characterizes as the thesis that facts about difference-making depend upon facts about physical causation. She takes this to imply that causation is not fundamentally a matter of difference-making. In this paper, I defend the difference-making approach against Ney’s argument. I also offer some positive reasons for thinking, pace Ney, that causation is fundamentally a matter of difference-making.


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

Item Type: Published Article or Volume
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Glynn, Lukelglynn@caltech.edu
Keywords: Causation; Difference-Making; Physical Causation; Causal Foundationalism
Subjects: General Issues > Causation
Depositing User: Dr. Luke Fenton-Glynn
Date Deposited: 09 May 2013 13:23
Last Modified: 09 May 2013 13:23
Item ID: 9732
Journal or Publication Title: Synthese
Publisher: Springer (Springer Science+Business Media B.V.)
Official URL: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11229-...
DOI or Unique Handle: 10.1007/s11229-011-0058-7
Subjects: General Issues > Causation
Date: 1 April 2013
Page Range: pp. 1017-1037
Volume: 190
Number: 6
ISSN: 1573-0964
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/9732

Monthly Views for the past 3 years

Monthly Downloads for the past 3 years

Plum Analytics

Altmetric.com

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item