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The Reality of Causes in a World of Instrumental Laws
PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1980 (Volume Two: Symposia and Invited):38 - 48 (1980)
Abstract
Philosophers of science nowadays are inclined to believe in physical laws, but generally, like Hume and Russell, to reject causes. This paper urges the reverse. Explanatory practice in physics argues that we must take literally the causal stories that our theories provide, but the fundamental laws and equations that are essential to modern science are merely instrumental.Author's Profile
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Citations of this work
Causal regularities in the biological world of contingent distributions.C. Kenneth Waters - 1998 - Biology and Philosophy 13 (1):5-36.
Towards a New Philosophy of Positive Economics.Don Ross & Chantale LaCasse - 1995 - Dialogue 34 (3):467-.
One table or two? scientific anti-realism and Husserl’s phenomenology.Lee Hardy - 2020 - Continental Philosophy Review 54 (4):437-452.
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