Comparing apples with oranges

Analysis 65 (1):12-18 (2005)
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Abstract

Comparisons of causal efficacy are ubiquitous in the practice of science and indeed everyday life. I focus on just one aspect of this task – one to my knowledge nowhere yet addressed satisfactorily – namely, comparing the efficacies of two causes that work in apparently incommensurable ways. Contrary to common opinion I argue that, to be comparable, it is neither necessary nor sufficient that two causes also be commensurable.

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Robert Northcott
Birkbeck, University of London

Citations of this work

Causation comes in degrees.Huzeyfe Demirtas - 2022 - Synthese 200 (1):1-17.
More of a Cause?Carolina Sartorio - 2020 - Journal of Applied Philosophy 37 (3):346-363.
Weighted explanations in history.Robert Northcott - 2008 - Philosophy of the Social Sciences 38 (1):76-96.

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