more on this theme     |     more from this text

Single Idea 4784

[filed under theme 26. Natural Theory / C. Causation / 8. Particular Causation / b. Causal relata ]

Full Idea

Salmon argues that processes rather than events should be the basic entities in a theory of physical causation.

Gist of Idea

Salmon says processes rather than events should be basic in a theory of physical causation

Source

report of Wesley Salmon (Causal Connections [1984]) by Stathis Psillos - Causation and Explanation §4.2

Book Ref

Psillos,Stathis: 'Causation and Explanation' [Acumen 2002], p.111

A Reaction

It increasingly strikes me that the concept of a 'process' ought to be ontologically basic. Edelman says the mind is a process. An 'event' is too loose, and a 'fact' too vague, and heaven knows what Hume meant by an 'object'.

The 29 ideas from Wesley Salmon

4784 Salmon says processes rather than events should be basic in a theory of physical causation [Salmon, by Psillos]
16557 Salmon's mechanisms are processes and interactions, involving marks, or conserved quantities [Salmon, by Machamer/Darden/Craver]
8411 Instead of localised events, I take enduring and extended processes as basic to causation [Salmon]
8412 A causal interaction is when two processes intersect, and correlated modifications persist afterwards [Salmon]
8413 Cause must come first in propagations of causal interactions, but interactions are simultaneous [Salmon]
13047 It is knowing 'why' that gives scientific understanding, not knowing 'that' [Salmon]
13046 Scientific explanation is not reducing the unfamiliar to the familiar [Salmon]
13045 Explanation at the quantum level will probably be by entirely new mechanisms [Salmon]
13050 The 'inferential' conception is that all scientific explanations are arguments [Salmon]
13049 We must distinguish true laws because they (unlike accidental generalizations) explain things [Salmon]
13051 Deductive-nomological explanations will predict, and their predictions will explain [Salmon]
13053 A law is not enough for explanation - we need information about what makes a difference [Salmon]
13054 Correlations can provide predictions, but only causes can give explanations [Salmon]
13055 Good induction needs 'total evidence' - the absence at the time of any undermining evidence [Salmon]
13056 Statistical explanation needs relevance, not high probability [Salmon]
13057 Think of probabilities in terms of propensities rather than frequencies [Salmon]
13058 Why-questions can seek evidence as well as explanation [Salmon]
13059 Ontic explanations can be facts, or reports of facts [Salmon]
13061 Flagpoles explain shadows, and not vice versa, because of temporal ordering [Salmon]
13060 Can events whose probabilities are low be explained? [Salmon]
13062 Does an item have a function the first time it occurs? [Salmon]
13063 Explanations reveal the mechanisms which produce the facts [Salmon]
13064 The three basic conceptions of scientific explanation are modal, epistemic, and ontic [Salmon]
13067 For the instrumentalists there are no scientific explanations [Salmon]
13065 Understanding is an extremely vague concept [Salmon]
8409 Probabilistic causal concepts are widely used in everyday life and in science [Salmon]
17093 Causation produces productive mechanisms; to understand the world, understand these mechanisms [Salmon]
17492 Salmon's interaction mechanisms needn't be regular, or involving any systems [Glennan on Salmon]
14366 An explanation is a table of statistical information [Salmon, by Strevens]