Mutual manipulability and causal inbetweenness
pp. 35-54
Abstract
Carl Craver’s mutual manipulability criterion aims to pick out all and only those components of a mechanism that are constitutively relevant with respect to a given phenomenon. In devising his criterion, Craver has made heavy use of the notion of an ideal intervention, which is a tool for illuminating causal concepts in causal models. The problem is that typical mechanistic models contain non-causal relations in addition to causal ones, which is why the standard concept of an ideal intervention is not appropriate in that context. In this paper, I first show how top-down interventions in mechanistic models violate the conditions for ideal interventions. Drawing from recent developments in the causal exclusion literature, I then argue for extended interventionism better suited for the purposes of the new mechanist. Finally, I show why adopting such an extended account leads to the surprising consequence that an important subset of mechanistic interlevel relations comes out as causal.
Publication details
Published in:
Huneman Philippe, Kostić Daniel (2018) Mechanistic and topological explanations. Synthese 195 (1).
Pages: 35-54
DOI: 10.1007/s11229-014-0564-5
Full citation:
Harinen Totte (2018) „Mutual manipulability and causal inbetweenness“. Synthese 195 (1), 35–54.