Levels of Organization and Causation

Evolutionary Transitions and Top-Down Causation

Top-down causation has been suggested to occur at all scales of biological organization as a mechanism for explaining the hierarchy of structure and causation in living systems (Campbell, 1974; Auletta et al., 2008; Davies, 2006b, 2012; Ellis, 2012). Here we propose that a transition from bottom-up to top-down causation – mediated by a reversal in the flow of information from lower to higher le...

1 Downward Causation without Foundations

Emergence is interpreted in a non-dualist framework of thought. No metaphysical distinction between the higher and basic levels of organization is supposed, but only a duality of modes of access. Moreover, these modes of access are not construed as mere ways of revealing intrinsic patterns of organization: They are supposed to be constitutive of them, in Kant’s sense. The emergent levels of org...

Coarse-graining as a downward causation mechanism

Downward causation is the controversial idea that 'higher' levels of organization can causally influence behaviour at 'lower' levels of organization. Here I propose that we can gain traction on downward causation by being operational and examining how adaptive systems identify regularities in evolutionary or learning time and use these regularities to guide behaviour. I suggest that in many ada...

A Ghazalian Predicament Epistemology and Metaphysics of Causation in the Works of Ghazali

مفهوم علیت در پارادایم‌های پزشکی

In this article, we aim to discuss one of the essential concepts of medicine. As a rule, such studies attempt to clarify the philosophical principals of medicine, whereby the act of medic can be regulated based on his clear perceptions of the principles of his knowledge. In this article, we will evaluate the concept of causation in medicine from a philosophical point of view and through histor...