Woodward, James (2020) Levels: What are they and what are they good for? Levels of Analysis in Psychopathology: Cross Disciplinary Perspectives. pp. 424-449.

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Abstract

This paper discusses a number of different notions of “level” that appear in various sciences and the relationships among these. It also explores some issues having to do with causal relationships “across” levels. It is argued that talk of levels is often functionally useful but also can be misleading.

I’m posting this paper on the Philsci archive in part because there is currently considerable interest in levels of explanation and levels of causal description. There is also (from my perspective) some misunderstandings of what a plausible interventionist account of causation (or at least my version of such an account) implies about these issues. This and several other papers I have posted on such issues attempt to correct these misunderstandings.

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Item Type:	Published Article or Volume
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Woodward, James
Keywords:	Levels of explanation/causation, Downward causation, Conditional Causal Independence
Subjects:	General Issues > Causation General Issues > Explanation General Issues > Reductionism/Holism
Depositing User:	Jim Woodward
Date Deposited:	14 Jan 2021 01:14
Last Modified:	14 Jan 2021 01:14
Item ID:	18600
Journal or Publication Title:	Levels of Analysis in Psychopathology: Cross Disciplinary Perspectives
Publisher:	Cambridge
Subjects:	General Issues > Causation General Issues > Explanation General Issues > Reductionism/Holism
Date:	2020
Page Range:	pp. 424-449
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/18600

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