Formal Causation Regained Petter Sandstad & Ludger Jansen Neglected Varieties of Causality What formal causation is committed to • Entities have forms, e.g., particle #102 is an electron. • Forms (usually) compose taxonomic hierarchies. • Forms can be studied scientifically (without mystery). • Formal causation has an explanatory and causal role. Identifying Essential properties Formal causation: Kind membership as cause • Whales have the disposition to breathe with lungs because they are mammals. • Whales have blowholes because they are cetaceans. • A scalene has internal angles equal to 180° because it is a triangle. • A scalene has external angles equal to 360° because it is a polygon. Particle #102 has negative charge because it is an electron. What formal causation is not committed to • Any specific view of universals (compatible with a Platonist, Aristotelian, conceptualist, and even some nominalist accounts) • Hylomorphism (which is, prima facie, inapplicable to abstract geometrical objects) • Individual forms/haecceities (only universal forms) • Consistent both with a committal to, and a rejection of, biological kinds, social entities, etc. as real kinds. Allowing for exceptions, using default logic Models of Explanation 11th MuST Conference in Philosophy of Science 11–13 June 2018 Turino (Italy) Formal cause as causation Electron An electron has the disposition to be attracted by a proton Causal relation •Difference-maker •Captures dependence •Similar role to laws of nature •Defeasible (non-monotonic) 1. Material cause 2. Formal cause 3. Efficient cause 4. Final cause • Events • Transference Electron An electron has the disposition to be attracted by a proton Explanatory relation •Answers why-questions •Unifies •Predictive •Captures relevance (non- monotonic) Birdie Default Bird Birdie can fly Birdie Exception Bird Penguin instance of is a Birdie cannot fly instance of Formal Causation in Aristotle and Analytic Metaphysics and Philosophy of Science (DFG 2018-2020) Institute of Philosophy, University of Rostock 18057 Rostock, Germany [email protected] [email protected]
Welcome message from author
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
Formal Causation Regained Petter Sandstad & Ludger Jansen
Neglected Varieties of Causality
What formal causation is committed to
• Entities have forms, e.g., particle #102 is an electron.
• Forms (usually) compose taxonomic hierarchies.
• Forms can be studied scientifically (without mystery).
• Formal causation has an explanatory and causal role.
Identifying Essential properties
Formal causation: Kind membership as cause
• Whales have the disposition to breathe with lungs because
they are mammals.
• Whales have blowholes because they are cetaceans.
• A scalene has internal angles equal to 180° because it is a
triangle.
• A scalene has external angles equal to 360° because it is a
polygon.
• Particle #102 has negative charge because it is an electron.
What formal causation is not committed to
• Any specific view of universals (compatible with a Platonist,
Aristotelian, conceptualist, and even some nominalist
accounts)
• Hylomorphism (which is, prima facie, inapplicable to abstract
geometrical objects)
• Individual forms/haecceities (only universal forms)
• Consistent both with a committal to, and a rejection of,
biological kinds, social entities, etc. as real kinds.
Allowing for exceptions, using default logic
Models of Explanation 11th MuST Conference in
Philosophy of Science 11–13 June 2018
Turino (Italy)
Formal cause as causation
Electron
An electron has the disposition to be attracted by a proton
Causalrelation
•Difference-maker•Captures dependence•Similar role to laws of nature•Defeasible (non-monotonic)
1. Material cause
2. Formal cause
3. Efficient cause
4. Final cause
• Events
• Transference
• Association
Formal cause as explanation
Electron
An electron has the disposition to be attracted by a proton
Explanatoryrelation
•Answers why-questions•Unifies•Predictive•Captures relevance (non-
monotonic)
Birdie
Default
Bird
Birdie can fly
Birdie
Exception
Bird
Penguin
instance of
is a
Birdie cannot fly
instance of
Formal Causation in Aristotle and Analytic Metaphysics and Philosophy of Science (DFG 2018-2020)
Institute of Philosophy, University of Rostock
18057 Rostock, Germany
Related Documents
