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8Laws of nature, exceptions and tropesPhilosophia Scientiae 7 (2): 189-219. 2003.I propose a realist theory of laws formulated in terms of tropes that avoids both the problems of the "best-systems-analysis" and the "inference problem" of realism of universals. I analyze the concept of an exceptional situation, characterized as a situation in which a particular object satisfies the antecedent but not the consequent of the regularity associated with a law, without thereby falsifying that law. To take this possibility into account, the properties linked by a law must be conceiv…Read more
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10Zur Transfer-Theorie der KausalitätIn Julian Nida-Rümelin & Georg Meggle (eds.), Analyomen 2, Volume I: Logic, Epistemology, Philosophy of Science, De Gruyter. pp. 405-413. 1997.Causation can be reduced to transmission in the following way: Two events c and e are linked as cause and effect iff there is a conserved quantity P which is exemplified in both events and of which an amount Q is transferred from c to e. This conception permits to overcome difficulties faced by earlier versions of the transference theory and by "process theories" of causation, such as Salmon's and Dowe's. In particular, it can explain the asymmetry of causality without relying on the asymmetry o…Read more
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10The causal criterion of reality and the necessity of laws of natureMetaphysica 3 (1): 57-86. 2002.I propose an argument for the thesis that laws of nature are necessary in the sense of holding in all worlds sharing the properties of the actual world, on the basis of a principle I propose to call the Causal Criterion of Reality . The CCR says: for an entity to be real it is necessary and sufficient that it is capable to make a difference to causal interactions. The crucial idea here is that the capacity to interact causally - or to contribute to determining causal interactions - is not only t…Read more
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20Causation in contemporary analytical philosophyQuaestio 2 (1): 635-668. 2002.Contemporary analytic philosophy is in the midst of a vigorous debate on the nature of causation. Each of the main proposals discussed in this chapter faces important problems: the deductive-nomological model, the counterfactual theory, the manipulability theory, the probabilistic theory and the transference theory. After having explored possible solutions to these problems, I conclude that one version of the transference approach is most promising. However, as I show in the last section, it is …Read more
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2Review of Markus Schrenk, The Metaphysics of Ceteris Paribus Laws (review)Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2007 (10). 2007.
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6Cognition and Neurophysiology: Mechanism, Reduction, and PluralismPhilosophical Psychology 22 (5): 539-541. 2009.The papers collected in this volume explore some of the powers and limitations of the concept of mechanism for the scientific understanding of cognitive systems, and aim at bringing together some of the most recent developments in the philosophical understanding of the relation of cognition to neuroscience. Earlier versions of most papers have been presented at a workshop held in Paris on June 19th, 2006, which was organized by Institut Jean Nicod and supported by RESCIF (R seau des sciences cog…Read more
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9International audience.
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4Multiple realization, reduction and mental propertiesInternational Studies in the Philosophy of Science 13 (2). 1999.This paper tries to remove some obstacles standing in the way of considering mental properties as both genuine natural kinds and causally efficacious rather than epiphenomena. As the case of temperature shows, it is not justified to conclude from a property being multiply realizable to it being irreducible. Yet Kim's argument to the effect that if a property is multiply realizable with a heterogeneous reduction base then it cannot be a natural kind and possesses only derivative “epiphenomenal” c…Read more
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24The landscape of causation: L. A. Paul and Ned Hall: Causation: A user’s guide. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013, 277pp, £18.99 PBMetascience 23 (3): 497-504. 2014.L. A. Paul and Ned Hall’s book makes an original and important contribution to the philosophical debate on causation. Their aim is not to construct a theory of causation but “to sketch a map” of the “landscape” (1) constituted by a rich set of problem cases and various theories of causation devised to account for them.Chapter 1 presents the scope and aim of the book, justifies the method of evaluating theories of causation by exploring whether they are refuted by counterexamples, and provides an…Read more
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6IntroductionVivarium 45 (2): 131-135. 2007.The aim of this introduction is to improve on the traditional way of summing up the history of the notions of power and disposition, by uncovering some of the complexities that remain hidden behind such an oversimplification.
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37Strong Emergence and Freedom: Comment on A. StephanIn Graham Macdonald & Cynthia Macdonald (eds.), Emergence in mind, Oxford University Press. pp. 240--251. 2010.
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25Causalité et lois de la natureJ. Vrin. 1999.La philosophie des sciences de l'empirisme logique avait discredite la causalite comme etant un concept du sens commun irremediablement vague et confus, pour lui substituer le concept d'explication scientifique. Cependant, dans nombre de theories contemporaines, notamment en philosophie de l'esprit et du langage, le concept de causalite continue a jouer un role de premier plan. Ce livre montre qu'il est possible de concevoir la causalite d'une maniere compatible avec des connaissances scientifiq…Read more
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13Reducing causality to transmissionErkenntnis 48 (1): 1-25. 1998.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 …Read more
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78Humans have only finite discriminatory capacities. This simple fact seems to be incompatible with the existence of appearances. As many authors have noted, the hypothesis that appearances exist seems to be refuted by reductio: Let A, B, C be three uniformly coloured surfaces presented to a subject in optimal viewing conditions, such that A, B, and C resemble one another perfectly except with respect to their colours. Their colours differ slightly in the following way: the difference between A an…Read more
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66On the Content of Natural Kind ConceptsActa Analytica 16 55-79. 2001.The search for a nomological account of what determines the content of concepts as they are represented in cognitive systems, is an important part of the general project of explaining intentional phenomena in naturalistic terms. I examine Fodor's "Theory of Content" and criticize his strategy of combining constraints in nomological terms with contraints in terms of actual causal relations. The paper focuses on the problem of the indeterminacy of the content of natural kind concepts. A concept li…Read more
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7The Causal Efficacy of Macroscopic Dispositional PropertiesIn Max Kistler & Bruno Gnassounou (eds.), Dispositions and Causal Powers, Ashgate. pp. 103--132. 2007.
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10Dispositions and Causal Powers (edited book)Ashgate. 2007.This collection of essays, by leading international researchers, examines the case for realism with respect to dispositions and causal powers in both ...
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2Causation as Transference and ResponsibilityIn Wolfgang Spohn, Marion Ledwig & Michael Esfeld (eds.), Current Issues in Causation, Mentis. pp. 115-133. 2001.During the last decades there has been a remarkable renewal of interest in theories of causation which is linked to the decline of the orthodoxy of the Logical empiricist school. A number of alternatives to the traditional covering-law account have been proposed. I shall defend a version of an approach that has been undeservedly neglected: the Transference Theory of causation. Accounts of this type elaborate the intuition that there is a material link between the cause and the effect, consisting…Read more
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3Perspectives on causes and dispositions: Toby Handfield : Dispositions and causes, Oxford University Press, 2009, 343 pp, £45.00, HBMetascience 19 (3): 403-407. 2010.
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111Necessary LawsIn Jan Faye, Paul Needham, Uwe Scheffler & Max Urchs (eds.), Nature's Principles, Springer. pp. 201-227. 2005.In the first part of this paper, I argue against the view that laws of nature are contingent, by attacking a necessary condition for its truth within the framework of a conception of laws as relations between universals. I try to show that there is no independent reason to think that universals have an essence independent of their nomological properties. However, such a non-qualitative essence is required to make sense of the idea that different laws link the same universals in different possibl…Read more
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9Le combinatorialisme et le réalisme nomologique sont-ils compatibles?In Jean-Maurice Monnoyer (ed.), La Structure Du Monde, Vrin, Paris. pp. 199--221. 2004.English title: Are combinatorialism and nomological realism compatible?
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University of Paris 1 Panthéon-SorbonneDepartment for Teaching and Research in Philosophy (UFR10)Regular Faculty
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Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueInstitute for the History and Philosophy of Science and TechnologyRegular Faculty