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Chemical causal relations across different levels of description

Seifert, Vanessa A. (2025) Chemical causal relations across different levels of description. [Preprint]

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Abstract

Two forms of chemical reaction statements are standardly found in the chemical corpus. First, individual reactions statements describe reactions that occur between specific chemical substances, leading to the production of specific substances. Secondly, general reactions statements describe chemical transformations between groups of substances. Both forms of statements track regularities in nature and are thus warranted to be viewed as representing causal relations. However, a convincing analysis in terms of causation also requires spelling out the metaphysical relation between individual and general reactions. This is because their relation prompts concerns regarding causal priority and causal overdetermination. I present these concerns and address them by arguing that we should view individual and general reactions in the context of the determinate/determinable distinction.


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Item Type: Preprint
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Seifert, Vanessa A.vs14902@bristol.ac.uk0000-0002-5391-0791
Additional Information: This is a preprint of the chapter to be published in Laws and powers in the Metaphysics of Science. Ioannidis, S., Psillos, S. & Seifert V.A. (eds.) Routledge
Subjects: General Issues > Scientific Metaphysics
General Issues > Causation
General Issues > Natural Kinds
Depositing User: Dr. Vanessa A. Seifert
Date Deposited: 04 Jun 2025 13:05
Last Modified: 04 Jun 2025 13:05
Item ID: 25554
Subjects: General Issues > Scientific Metaphysics
General Issues > Causation
General Issues > Natural Kinds
Date: 2025
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/25554

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