How Can Causal Explanations Explain?

被引:13
|
作者
Williamson, Jon [1 ]
机构
[1] Univ Kent, Canterbury, Kent, England
关键词
THINKING;
D O I
10.1007/s10670-013-9512-x
中图分类号
B [哲学、宗教];
学科分类号
01 ; 0101 ;
摘要
The mechanistic and causal accounts of explanation are often conflated to yield a 'causal-mechanical' account. This paper prizes them apart and asks: if the mechanistic account is correct, how can causal explanations be explanatory? The answer to this question varies according to how causality itself is understood. It is argued that difference-making, mechanistic, dualist and inferentialist accounts of causality all struggle to yield explanatory causal explanations, but that an epistemic account of causality is more promising in this regard.
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页码:257 / 275
页数:19
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