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Single Idea 17494

[filed under theme 26. Natural Theory / C. Causation / 4. Naturalised causation ]

Full Idea

Causation can be analyzed in terms of mechanisms because (except for fundamental causal interactions) causally related events will be connected by intervening mechanisms.

Gist of Idea

Since causal events are related by mechanisms, causation can be analysed in that way

Source

Stuart Glennan (Mechanisms [2008], 'causation')

Book Ref

'Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Science', ed/tr. Psillos,S/Curd,M [Routledge 2010], p.381

A Reaction

This won't give us the metaphysics of causation (which concerns the fundamentals), but this strikes me as a very coherent and interesting proposal. He mentions electron interaction as non-mechanistic causation.

Related Idea

Idea 17493 Modern mechanism need parts with spatial, temporal and function facts, and diagrams [Glennan]

The 28 ideas with the same theme [causation explained in terms of natural phenomena]:

561 Is there cause outside matter, and can it be separated, and is it one or many? [Aristotle]
1894 Some say that causes are physical, some say not [Sext.Empiricus]
7563 The old 'influx' view of causation says it is a flow of accidental properties from A to B [Suárez, by Jolley]
12497 Causes are the substances which have the powers to produce action [Locke]
8412 A causal interaction is when two processes intersect, and correlated modifications persist afterwards [Salmon]
18380 Negative causations supervene on positive causations plus their laws? [Armstrong]
8326 Science has shown that causal relations are just transfers of energy or momentum [Fair, by Sosa/Tooley]
10379 Fair shifted his view to talk of counterfactuals about energy flow [Fair, by Schaffer,J]
8416 Reductionists can't explain accidents, uninstantiated laws, probabilities, or the existence of any laws [Tooley]
8328 Causation isn't energy transfer, because an electron is caused by previous temporal parts [Sosa/Tooley]
8327 If direction of causation is just direction of energy transfer, that seems to involve causation [Sosa/Tooley]
2542 Causation in the material world is energy-transfer, of motion, electricity or gravity [McGinn]
11937 We should analyse causation in terms of powers, not vice versa [Molnar]
8387 A cause has its effects in virtue of its properties [Crane]
14586 Physical causation consists in transference of conserved quantities [Dowe, by Mumford/Anjum]
4787 Causation interaction is an exchange of conserved quantities, such as mass, energy or charge [Dowe, by Psillos]
9493 We should explain causation by powers, not powers by causation [Bird]
10366 Causation transcends nature, because absences can cause things [Schaffer,J]
10377 Causation may not be a process, if a crucial part of the process is 'disconnected' [Schaffer,J]
10378 A causal process needs to be connected to the effect in the right way [Schaffer,J]
10382 Causation can't be a process, because a process needs causation as a primitive [Schaffer,J]
17494 Since causal events are related by mechanisms, causation can be analysed in that way [Glennan]
14563 Causation is the passing around of powers [Mumford/Anjum]
23013 The main process theory of causation says it is transference of mass, energy, momentum or charge [Baron/Miller]
23014 If causes are processes, what is causation by omission? (Distinguish legal from scientific causes?) [Baron/Miller]
22608 Casuation is the transmission of conserved quantities between causal processes [Ingthorsson]
22614 Interventionist causal theory says it gets a reliable result whenever you manipulate it [Ingthorsson]
22621 Causation as transfer only works for asymmetric interactions [Ingthorsson]