Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-d8cs5 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-28T02:12:42.102Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Reichenbach, Causation, and Explanation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 January 2023

Richard Otte
Richard Otte*
Affiliation:
University of California, Santa Cruz
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Theories of scientific explanation have taken different forms, but many philosophers are adopting models of explanation in which causation plays a central role. The intuition behind this idea is that we explain the occurrence of an event by displaying its causal history, or by listing its causes. As natural as this may seem, problems arise when we attempt to use this model of explanation with a system that is indeterministic. If we want to give a causal explanation of an event that is not causally determined, then we need a theory of causation which allows for causation in indeterministic systems.

Type
Part I. Physics
Information
PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association , Volume 1986 , Issue 1: Volume One: Contributed Papers 1986 , 1986 , pp. 59 - 65
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1986

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Reichenbach, H. (1925). “Die Kausalstruktur der Welt und der Unterschied von Vergangenheit und Zukunft.” Sitzunesberiohte der Baverlsohen Akademle der Wlissensohaftenr Mathematisoh-Naturwissensohaftllche Abtellung 55: 133–175. (As reprinted as “The Causal Structure of the World and the Difference Between Past and Future.” In Hans Reichenbaoh; Selected Writings, 1909-1953. Edited by Reichenbach, M and Cohen, R. Dordrecht: D. Reidel, 1978. Pages 81-119.)Google Scholar
Reichenbach, H. (1956). The Direction of Time. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Salmon, W. (1971). “Statistical Explanation.” In Statistical Explanation and Statistical Relevance. Edited by Salmon, Wesley C Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. Pages 29–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Salmon, W. (1984). Scientific Explanation and the Causal Structure of the World. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar