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Chapter 7 - Whither Counterfactuals?

from Part II - Causation and Mechanism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 June 2022

Stavros Ioannidis  and
Stathis Psillos
Stavros Ioannidis
Affiliation:
University of Athens, Greece
Stathis Psillos
Affiliation:
University of Athens, Greece
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Summary

Given the centrality of counterfactual difference-making relations to the argument of the book, in Chapter 7 we say a few more things about contrary-to-fact conditionals. We offer a primer on the logic and the semantics of counterfactuals, focusing on the two main schools of thought: the metalinguistic and the possible-worlds approach. We also present and examine James Woodward’s interventionist counterfactuals and the Rubin-Holland model. We argue that the counterfactual approach is more basic than the mechanistic, but information about mechanisms can help sort out some of the methodological problems faced by the counterfactual account.

Keywords

counterfactualssemanticsmetalinguistic viewpossible worldsLewisWoodwardRubin-Holland modelmechanismslawscausal inference
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Chapter
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Mechanisms in Science
Method or Metaphysics?
 , pp. 164 - 190
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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