Sullivan, Emily (2019) Universality Caused: The case of renormalization group explanation. European Journal for Philosophy of Science, 9 (36). ISSN 1879-4912
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Abstract
Recently, many have argued that there are certain kinds of abstract mathematical explanations that are noncausal. In particular, the irrelevancy approach suggests that abstracting away irrelevant causal details can leave us with a noncausal explanation. In this paper, I argue that the common example of Renormalization Group (RG) explanations of universality used to motivate the irrelevancy approach deserves more critical attention. I argue that the reasons given by those who hold up RG as noncausal do not stand up to critical scrutiny. As a result, the irrelevancy approach and the line between casual and noncausal explanation deserves more scrutiny.
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| Item Type: | Published Article or Volume | ||||||
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| Keywords: | causal explanation; non-causal explanation; universality; renormalization group; critical phenomena; Abstraction | ||||||
| Subjects: | General Issues > Causation General Issues > Explanation General Issues > History of Philosophy of Science Specific Sciences > Physics |
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| Depositing User: | Dr. Emily Sullivan | ||||||
| Date Deposited: | 02 Aug 2019 04:09 | ||||||
| Last Modified: | 02 Aug 2019 04:09 | ||||||
| Item ID: | 16277 | ||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | European Journal for Philosophy of Science | ||||||
| Publisher: | Springer | ||||||
| Official URL: | https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13194-0... | ||||||
| Subjects: | General Issues > Causation General Issues > Explanation General Issues > History of Philosophy of Science Specific Sciences > Physics |
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| Date: | October 2019 | ||||||
| Volume: | 9 | ||||||
| Number: | 36 | ||||||
| ISSN: | 1879-4912 | ||||||
| URI: | https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/16277 |
Available Versions of this Item
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Universality Caused:
The case of renormalization group explanation. (deposited 13 Jun 2019 12:56)
- Universality Caused: The case of renormalization group explanation. (deposited 02 Aug 2019 04:09) [Currently Displayed]
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