Representing and Intervening

Preface 1. Biology and its philosophy 2. Autonomy and provincialism 3. Teleology and the roots of autonomy 4. Reductionism and the temptation of provincialism 5. The structure of evolutionary theory 6. Fitness 7. Species 8. New problems of functionalism Bibliography Index.

The Structure of Biological Science.

Supervenience and Mind

Individuals: An Essay in Descriptive Metaphysics

In this article we have presented an approach to the mathematical description of dynamical systems. The central notion is the behavior, which consists of the set of time trajectories that are declared possible by the model of a dynamical system. Often, the behavior is defined as the set of solutions of a system of differential equations. Models that specify a behavior usually involve latent variables in addition to the manifest variables the model aims at. We have also described a methodology for modeling interconnected systems, called tearing, zooming, and linking. The underlying mathematical language consists of terminals, modules, the interconnection graph, the module embedding, and the manifest variable assignment. The combination of module equations, interconnection constraints, and manifest variable assignment leads to a latent-variable representation for the behavior of the manifest variables the model aims. This methodology of tearing, zooming, and linking offers a systematic procedure for modeling interconnected systems that is much better adapted to the physics of interconnected systems than input/output-modeling procedures such as, for example, Simulink. The methodology of tearing, zooming, and linking has many things in common with bond graphs.

The Behavioral Approach to Open and Interconnected Systems

1. What is a Causal Relation? 2. Laws of Nature and Universal Generalisations 3. Applicability Conditions and the Concept of "Strict Law" 4. Consequences 5. The Nomological Theory of Causation and Causal Responsibility 6. Efficacious Properties and the Instantiation of Laws 7. Causal Responsibility and its Applications Conclusion

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Causation and Laws of Nature

The idea that causation can be reduced to transmission of an amount of some conserved quantity between events is spelled out and defended against important objections. Transmission is understood as a symmetrical relation of copresence in two distinct events. The actual asymmetry of causality has its origin in the asymmetrical character of certain irreversible physical processes and then spreads through the causal net. This conception is compatible with the possibility of backwards causation and with a causal theory of time. Genidentity, the persistence of concrete objects, can be given an explanation in causal terms. The transmission theory is shown to escape difficulties faced by two important alternative theories of causation: Salmon's (1984) Mark Transmission Theory and Dowe's (1992a) Conserved Quantities Theory.

Reducing causality to transmission

Interventionism and Causal Exclusion

Experimental investigation of mechanisms seems to make use of causal relations that cut across levels of composition. In bottom-up experiments, one intervenes on parts of a mechanism to observe the...

Mechanisms and downward causation

Contents: Introduction, Bruno Gnassounou and Max Kistler. Part 1 The Metaphysics of Dispositions and Causal Powers: Dispositions and counterfactuals. From Carnap to Goodman's children and grandchildren, FranA ois Schmitz Filled in space, Stephen Mumford Dispositions and essences, Claudine Tiercelin The causal efficacy of macroscopic dispositional properties, Max Kistler Opium's virtus dormitiva, Cyrille Michon Conditional possibility, Bruno Gnassounou On ascribing dispositions, Ludger Jansen. Part 2 Dispositions and Causal Powers in Science: An extended semantic field of dispositions and the grounding role of causal powers, Rom Harre What makes a capacity a disposition?, Nancy Cartwright Causation, laws and dispositions, Andreas HA ttemann Can capacities rescue us from Ceteris Paribus laws?, Markus Schrenk Dispositions, relational properties and the quantum world, Mauro Dorato Are specific heats dispositions?, Anouk Barberousse Bibliography Index.

Max Kistler

Papers

Causation and Laws of Nature

Reducing causality to transmission

Interventionism and Causal Exclusion

Mechanisms and downward causation

Dispositions and Causal Powers