Uncovering constitutive relevance relations in mechanisms.

In this paper I argue that constitutive relevance relations in mechanisms behave like a special kind of causal relation in at least one important respect: Under suitable circumstances constitutive relevance relations produce the Markov factorization. Based on this observation one may wonder whether...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Philosophical Studies Vol. 174; no. 11; pp. 2645 - 2667
Autor principal: Gebharter, Alexander
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Springer Nature Nov2017
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
Descripción
Sumario:In this paper I argue that constitutive relevance relations in mechanisms behave like a special kind of causal relation in at least one important respect: Under suitable circumstances constitutive relevance relations produce the Markov factorization. Based on this observation one may wonder whether standard methods for causal discovery could be fruitfully applied to uncover constitutive relevance relations. This paper is intended as a first step into this new area of philosophical research. I investigate to what extent the PC algorithm, originally developed for causal search, can be used for constitutive relevance discovery. I also discuss possible objections and certain limitations of a constitutive relevance discovery procedure based on PC.