Prospects for Causal Explanation Outside of Mechanism
| dc.contributor.author | Athearn, Daniel Richard | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2024-12-11T18:56:46Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2024-12-11T18:56:46Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 1989-12 | |
| dc.description | 194 pages | |
| dc.description.abstract | This work is an attack on the standard neo-Humean conception of science in philosophy of science. The following pillars of this conception are targets of the critique: (1) the claim that the role of causality in scientific explanation has been, or can be , superseded by scientific laws ; (2) the belief that a causal process can only be a disconnected, perhaps contiguous, series of events. In addition to attacking these explicit views , the work challenges the background assumption that causal explanations for basic phenomena of physics have proved permanently impossible, leaving, henceforth and forever , laws and only laws as material for theoretical knowledge in a fundamental domain of science. Examination of other contemporary causal realist philosophers shows that their contributions to an understanding of unobservable causes in physics have severe limitations, due to their retention of key Empiricist conclusions. | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/1794/30229 | |
| dc.language.iso | en_US | |
| dc.publisher | University of Oregon | |
| dc.rights | Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0-US | |
| dc.rights | UO theses and dissertations are provided for research and educational purposes and may be under copyright by the author or the author’s heirs. Please contact us <mailto:scholars@uoregon.edu> with any questions or comments. In your email, please be sure to include the URL and title of the specific items of your inquiry. | |
| dc.subject | causal understanding, acausalism, philosophy, Positivist Doctrine, mechanistic models, theory | |
| dc.title | Prospects for Causal Explanation Outside of Mechanism | |
| dc.type | Thesis / Dissertation |