Structuralism, causation and explanation

Scientific Explanation and Scientific Structuralism

In this paper we argue that quantum mechanics provides a genuine kind of structural explanations of quantum phenomena. Since structural explanations only rely on the formal properties of the theory, they have the advantage of being independent of interpretative questions. As such, they can be used to claim that, even in the current absence of one agreed-upon interpretation, quantum mechanics is...

Causation, mediation and explanation

doi: 10.1093/ije/dyw281 Advance Access Publication Date: 18 November 2016 Causation, mediation and explanation Neil Pearce and Jan P Vandenbroucke* Department of Medical Statistics and Centre for Global NCDs, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK and Centre for Public Health Research, Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand and Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Leiden...

Causation and Explanation

Causation , Explanation and Nonmonotonic Temporal Reasoning

We introduce a new approach to reasoning about action and change using nonmonotonic logic. The approach is arrived at by applying Pearl's theory of causal networks to logical formalizations of temporal reasoning domains. It handles complicated reasoning domains involving concurrent actions, actions with nondeterministic eects, preconditions over several points in time, ramication/qualication co...

The Idealization of Causation in Mechanistic Explanation∗

Causal relations among components and activities are intentionally misrepresented in mechanistic explanations found routinely across the life sciences. Since several mechanists explicitly advocate accurately representing factors that make a difference to the outcome, these idealizations conflict with the stated rationale for mechanistic explanation. We argue that these idealizations signal an o...