Harinen, Totte (2014) Mutual Manipulability and Causal Inbetweenness. [Preprint]

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Abstract

Carl Craver's mutual manipulability criterion aims to pick out all and only those components of a mechanism that are constitutively relevant with respect to a given phenomenon. In devising his criterion, Craver has made heavy use of the notion of an ideal intervention, which is a tool for illuminating causal concepts in causal models. The problem is that typical mechanistic models contain non-causal relations in addition to causal ones, and so the question as to the applicability of ideal interventions arises. In this paper, I first show why top-down interventions in mechanistic models are likely to violate the standard conditions for ideal interventions under two familiar metaphysics of mechanistic models: those based on supervenience and realization. Drawing from recent developments in the causal exclusion literature, I then argue for the appropriateness of an extended notion of an ideal intervention. Finally, I show why adopting such an extended notion leads to the surprising consequence that an important subset of mechanistic interlevel relations come out as causal. I call the resulting metaphysical account by the name `causal inbetweenness'.

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Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Harinen, Totte totte.harinen@kcl.ac.uk
Keywords:	mutual manipulability, mechanisms, supervenience, realization, causal inbetweenness
Subjects:	General Issues > Causation General Issues > Explanation Specific Sciences > Neuroscience
Depositing User:	Totte Harinen
Date Deposited:	25 Oct 2014 15:37
Last Modified:	25 Oct 2014 15:37
Item ID:	11083
Journal or Publication Title:	Synthese
Publisher:	Springer (Springer Science+Business Media B.V.)
Official URL:	https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11229-014-0564-5
DOI or Unique Handle:	10.1007/s11229-014-0564-5
Subjects:	General Issues > Causation General Issues > Explanation Specific Sciences > Neuroscience
Date:	2014
ISSN:	1573-0964
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/11083

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• Mutual Manipulability and Causal Inbetweenness. (deposited 15 Mar 2014 17:30)
  • Mutual Manipulability and Causal Inbetweenness. (deposited 25 Oct 2014 15:37) [Currently Displayed]

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