Running up the flagpole to see if anyone salutes: A response to Woodward on causal and explanatory asymmetries

Theoria : An International Journal for Theory, History and Fundations of Science (forthcoming)
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Abstract

Does smoke cause fire or does fire cause smoke? James Woodward’s “Flagpoles anyone? Causal and explanatory asymmetries” argues that various statistical independence relations not only help us to uncover the directions of causal and explanatory relations in our world, but also are the worldly basis of causal and explanatory directions. We raise questions about Woodward’s envisioned epistemology, but our primary focus is on his metaphysics. We argue that any alleged connection between statistical (in)dependence and causal/explanatory direction is contingent, at best. The directions of causal/explanatory relations in our world seem not to depend on the statistical (in)dependence relations in our world (conceived of either as frequency patterns or as relations among chances). Thus, we doubt that statistical (in)dependence relations are the worldly basis of causal and explanatory directions.

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Author Profiles

Marc Lange
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Katrina Elliott
University of California, Los Angeles

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References found in this work

A World of States of Affairs.D. M. Armstrong - 1993 - Philosophical Perspectives 7:429-440.
Explanatory unification and the causal structure of the world.Philip Kitcher - 1962 - In Philip Kitcher & Wesley C. Salmon, Scientific Explanation. Univ of Minnesota Pr. pp. 410-505.
Causal relations.Donald Davidson - 1967 - Journal of Philosophy 64 (21):691-703.
Venetian sea levels, british bread prices, and the principle of the common cause.Elliott Sober - 2001 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 52 (2):331-346.

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