Author : Max Kistler
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 273 pages
File Size : 21,96 MB
Release : 2006-09-27
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 1134150687
What is a causal relation? -- Laws of nature and universal generalisations -- Applicability conditions and the concept of strict law -- Consequences -- The nomological theory of causation and causal responsibility -- Efficacious properties and the instantiation of laws -- Causal responsibility and its applications.
Author : H. Sankey
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 408 pages
File Size : 45,29 MB
Release : 1999-12-31
Category : Law
ISBN : 9780792359142
Causation and Laws of Nature is a collection of articles which represents current research on the metaphysics of causation and laws of nature, mostly by authors working in or active in the Australasian region. The book provides an overview of current work on the theory of causation, including counterfactual, singularist, nomological and causal process approaches. It also covers work on the nature of laws of nature, with special emphasis on the scientific essentialist theory that laws of nature are, at base, the fundamental dispositions or capacities of natural kinds of things. Because the book represents a good cross-section of authors currently working on these themes in the Australasian region, it conveys something of the interest and excitement of an active philosophical debate between advocates of several different research programmes in the area.
Author : Michael Tooley
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
Page : 386 pages
File Size : 17,22 MB
Release : 1999
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780815330646
First published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
Author : John W. Carroll
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 230 pages
File Size : 30,38 MB
Release : 1994-02-25
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780521433341
John Carroll undertakes a careful philosophical examination of laws of nature, causation, and other related topics. He argues that laws of nature are not susceptible to the sort of philosophical treatment preferred by empiricists. Indeed he shows that empirically pure matters of fact need not even determine what the laws are. Similar, even stronger, conclusions are drawn about causation. Replacing the traditional view of laws and causation requiring some kind of foundational legitimacy, the author argues that these phenomena are inextricably intertwined with everything else.
Author : Marc Lange
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 277 pages
File Size : 41,49 MB
Release : 2009-07-09
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 019974503X
What distinguishes laws of nature from ordinary facts? What are the "lawmakers": the facts in virtue of which the laws are laws? How can laws be necessary, yet contingent? Lange provocatively argues that laws are distinguished by their necessity, which is grounded in primitive subjunctive facts, while also providing a non-technical and accessible survey of the field.
Author : Wei Wang
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 158 pages
File Size : 22,2 MB
Release : 2017-04-21
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 1317541316
Scientific explanation, laws of nature, and causation are crucial and frontier issues in the philosophy of science. This book studies the complex relationship between the three concepts, aiming to achieve a holistic synthesis about explanation–laws–causation. By reviewing Hempel's scientific explanation models and Salmon's three conceptions – the epistemic, modal, and ontic conception – the book suggests that laws are essential to explanation and that our understanding of laws will help solve the problems of the latter. Concerning the nature of laws, this book tackles both the problems of regularity approach and necessitarian approach. It also proposes that the ontological order of explanation should be from events (or processes) to causation, then to regularity (laws), and finally to science system, but the epistemological order should be from science system to laws to explanation and causation. In addition, this book examines the legitimacy of ceteris paribus laws, the connection between explanation and reduction, the relation between explanation and interpretation, and some other issues closely related to explanation–laws–causation. This book will attract scholars and students of philosophy of science, natural sciences, social sciences, etc.
Author : Nancy Cartwright
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 207 pages
File Size : 39,28 MB
Release : 2016-06-30
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 1474244084
This book presents a radical new picture of natural order. The Newtonian idea of a cosmos ruled by universal and exceptionless laws has been superseded; replaced by a conception of nature as a realm of diverse powers, potencies, and dispositions, a 'dappled world'. There is order in nature, but it is more local, diverse, piecemeal, open, and emergent than Newton imagined. In each chapter expert authors expound the historical context of the idea of laws of nature, and explore the diverse sorts of order actually presupposed by work in physics, biology, and the social sciences. They consider how human freedom might be understood, and explore how Newton's idea of a 'universal designer' might be revised, in this new context. They argue that there is not one unified totalizing program of science, aiming at the completion of one closed causal system. We live in an ordered universe, but we need to rethink the classical idea of the 'laws of nature' in a more dynamic and creatively diverse way.
Author : Richard L Thompson
Publisher : Institute for Vaishnava Studies
Page : pages
File Size : 33,62 MB
Release : 2004-02-04
Category :
ISBN : 9780998187112
In the world of modern science, traditional religion is often seen as a force of ignorance which attempts to impose outdated ideas on scientific truth. At the same time, many scientists see science giving rise to a materialistic doctrine of scientism that aims to eradicate the spiritual world view of religion. This may seem to be an irreconcilable conflict. But there is another way to look at it. Science and religion can interact synergistically to generate new and interesting ideas. God & Science is a collection of essays that examine the relationship between modern science and the Vaishnava tradition of India. Although little known in the West, the Vaishnava tradition is based on a monotheistic philosophy having much in common with Judeo-Christian thought. When brought into contact with modern science, Vaishnavism generates some of the same questions that arise from the confrontation of science and Christianity. At the same time, there are significant differences. These essays contain a smorgasbord of novel insights that provide new perspectives on the relation between science and religion.
Author : Kadri Vihvelin
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 295 pages
File Size : 19,42 MB
Release : 2013-06-27
Category : Law
ISBN : 0199795185
This book rescues compatibilists from the familiar charge of 'quagmire of evasion' by arguing that the problem of free will and determinism is a metaphysical problem with a metaphysical solution. There is no good reason to think that determinism would rob us of the free will we think we have.
Author : Stathis Psillos
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 337 pages
File Size : 45,23 MB
Release : 2014-12-18
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 1317489772
What is the nature of causation? How is causation linked with explanation? And can there be an adequate theory of explanation? These questions and many others are addressed in this unified and rigorous examination of the philosophical problems surrounding causation, laws and explanation. Part 1 of this book explores Hume's views on causation, theories of singular causation, and counterfactual and mechanistic approaches. Part 2 considers the regularity view of laws and laws as relations among universals, as well as recent alternative approaches to laws. Part 3 examines the issues arising from deductive-nomological explanation, statistical explanation, the explanation of laws and the metaphysics of explanation. Accessible to readers of all levels, this book provides an excellent introduction to one of the most enduring problems of philosophy.
