Ross, Lauren N. (2017) Causal selection and the pathway concept. [Preprint]
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Abstract
Causal selection has to do with a distinction between mere background conditions and the "true" cause or causes of some outcome of interest. Most philosophical work on this topic examines the selection of single causal factors and aims to clarify what grounds, if any, justify this selection. Such analyses overlook the fact that in scientific (and often ordinary life) contexts multiple factors are often selected as the important causes of some outcome. This analysis examines one such multicausal case where factors in causal pathways are selected in biological explanations. This work provides a novel analysis of the pathway concept, its role in causal selection, and the rationale behind this selection. It is argued that this rationale is guided by principled considerations, which have been overlooked in the extant literature.
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Item Type: | Preprint | ||||||
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Keywords: | causation, explanation, philosophy of biology, causal selection, pragmatics | ||||||
Subjects: | Specific Sciences > Biology Specific Sciences > Biology > Molecular Biology/Genetics General Issues > Causation General Issues > Explanation |
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Depositing User: | Lauren N. Ross | ||||||
Date Deposited: | 08 Feb 2018 16:46 | ||||||
Last Modified: | 08 Feb 2018 22:06 | ||||||
Item ID: | 14361 | ||||||
Subjects: | Specific Sciences > Biology Specific Sciences > Biology > Molecular Biology/Genetics General Issues > Causation General Issues > Explanation |
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Date: | 21 July 2017 | ||||||
URI: | https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/14361 |
Available Versions of this Item
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Causal selection in biochemistry: Making things by making things happen. (deposited 22 Jul 2017 14:04)
- Causal selection and the pathway concept. (deposited 08 Feb 2018 16:46) [Currently Displayed]
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