Asymmetry as a challenge to counterfactual accounts of non-causal explanation.

This paper examines some recent attempts that use counterfactuals to understand the asymmetry of non-causal scientific explanations. These attempts recognize that even when there is explanatory asymmetry, there may be symmetry in counterfactual dependence. Therefore, something more than mere counter...

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Publicado en:Synthese Vol. 198; no. 4; pp. 3893 - 3919
Autor principal: Lange, Marc
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Springer Nature Apr2021
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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        au: Lange, Marc
        affil: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, CB#3125, 27599-3125, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
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        Oxford University Press
        Explanation
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          Oxford University Press
          Explanation
      keyword:
        Causation
        Counterfactuals
        Mathematics
        Non-causal
        Relativity
        Topology
        Woodward
      ab: This paper examines some recent attempts that use counterfactuals to understand the asymmetry of non-causal scientific explanations. These attempts recognize that even when there is explanatory asymmetry, there may be symmetry in counterfactual dependence. Therefore, something more than mere counterfactual dependence is needed to account for explanatory asymmetry. Whether that further ingredient, even if applicable to causal explanation, can fit non-causal explanation is the challenge that explanatory asymmetry poses for counterfactual accounts of non-causal explanation. This paper argues that several recent accounts (Woodward, in: Reutlinger and Saatsi (eds) Explanation beyond causation: philosophical perspectives on non-causal explanations, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 117–140, 2018; Jansson and Saatsi in Br J Philos Sci, forthcoming; Jansson in J Philos 112:7–599, 2015; Saatsi and Pexton in Philos Sci 80: 613–624, 2013; French and Saatsi, in: Reutlinger and Saatsi (eds) Explanation beyond causation: philosophical perspectives on non-causal explanations, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 185–205, 2018) fail to meet this challenge. The paper then sketches a more positive proposal for dealing with explanatory asymmetry in non-causal explanations.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
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    language: English
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