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The Worldly Infrastructure of Causation

Weinberger, Naftali and Williams, Porter and Woodward, James (2023) The Worldly Infrastructure of Causation. [Preprint]

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Abstract

This paper describes an alternative to currently dominant philosophical approaches to the metaphysics of causation. It is motivated by the gap that currently exists between metaphysical accounts and recent epistemological research on causal reasoning and methods for discovering causal relationships. Our approach aims at characterizing structural features of the actual world that support, and are exploited by, successful strategies for causal reasoning and discovery. We call these features the “worldly infrastructure” of causation. We identify several elements of this worldly infrastructure, sketch an account of their physical bases, and explain how they contribute to the possibility of successful causal reasoning.


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Item Type: Preprint
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Weinberger, Naftalinaftali.weinberger@gmail.com
Williams, PorterPDW27@pitt.edu
Woodward, Jamesjfw@pitt.edu
Keywords: Causation; Scientific Methodology; Metaphysics;
Subjects: General Issues > Causation
General Issues > Experimentation
General Issues > Models and Idealization
Specific Sciences > Physics
Specific Sciences > Probability/Statistics
Depositing User: Mr. Naftali Weinberger
Date Deposited: 22 May 2023 15:43
Last Modified: 22 May 2023 15:43
Item ID: 22125
Subjects: General Issues > Causation
General Issues > Experimentation
General Issues > Models and Idealization
Specific Sciences > Physics
Specific Sciences > Probability/Statistics
Date: 2023
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/22125

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