View Of Causation Research Articles

Libertad como causa

El presente trabajo examina la crítica de Heidegger a la concepción kantiana de la libertad como un tipo peculiar de causa. Con ella Kant consuma tendencias operantes en una larga tradición, cuyos orígenes remontan a la ontología griega, que documenta la comprensión del ser como constante presencia. Pero el enfoque causal de la libertad no permite hacer justicia a sus raíces más profundas en la propia trascendencia del Dasein.

Doing and Allowing in the Context of Physician-Assisted Suicide

Supporting the (active) rational suicide of a patient with a terminal disease is opposed by a majority of German doctors, whereas assistance in such patients’ hastening their death by voluntarily stopping eating and drinking (VSED) is predominantly judged to be acceptable. Are these two positions compatible? It is argued that the normative differentiation cannot be justified by the fact that the assistance in active suicide is itself active, whereas assistance in VSED is merely passive. Even in "letting die" a patient from hastening death by refusing nutrition and hydration there is an active element in the doctor's/the palliative care team's assurance that they will provide palliative support in case of need. Nor can the difference in evaluation be justified by relevant differences in the causal situation. Enabling a patient to perform VSED and assisting a patient's active suicide under the same circumstances are, as far as causal relevance is concerned, on a par. This holds, at least, on a condition view of causality in the tradition of John Stuart Mill. Finally, the paper discusses whether there are other morally relevant dimensions by which actively and passively supporting a patient suicide under the relevant circumstances differ, again with a negative result.

Towards a few ideals in the concept of teaching. Teaching as a vehicle in education

Recently researchers have become increasingly aware of the value of the concept of teaching as an implementer of educational goals. At least many of Gert Biesta’s recent theoretical-conceptual studies on teaching and the teacher provide indications of this. It is all about finding teaching again, but not exactly in the same sense as before. It is possible to conceptually highlight aspects of teaching that emphasize its value. This unique value can be expressed through a teleological model combined with a modern view of causality, i.e., teaching works as a complex and reciprocal process. The causal mechanism can be traced by using close conceptual analysis, which leads us to essential power categories: There are potential structures for student learning (within which all factors are not always activated), moreover, teaching intentions are indispensable.

Ontological Emergence Without Vertical Causation

In this essay, I aim to address the two related problems faced by ontological emergence and propose a solution. First, I shall briefly outline the concept of emergence, the distinction between ontological and epistemological emergence, as well as the distinction between synchronic and diachronic emergence, and focus mainly on synchronic ontological emergence. Second, I shall discuss the two related problems faced by synchronic ontological emergence—configurational forces and downward causation. Third, I shall present a solution to these problems—affirming ontological emergence but denying vertical causation. Last, I shall address objections to the ontological emergence without vertical causation view.

The metaphysical meaning of right force

Introduction. Right force is known as the antipode of force law. Meanwhile, the practice of relations between states and within states - between the state and its citizens, and between citizens themselves, is often replete with examples of the use of law rather than force of law (rules of law). Such vitality of the right of force gives grounds to speak of the existence of metaphysical grounds for its revival in social relations. The aim of the article. This article is dedicated to finding these reasons. Results. Philosophical science differentiates metaphysics into general and particular. The first examines all things (objectively existing), the second examines the reasons for existing. It is from the point of view of causality that the power of right phenomenon is to be considered. A retrospective analysis of the first written legal sources testifies to the fixation of the right of power in these sources by the representatives of the most powerful social groups. From this it follows that inequality arises as a result of the presence of advantages in the most able members of such groups. And we call these advantages a force that has the potential to be used by the bearers of that power. Thus, the power is understood to have any advantages in individuals who enter into communication with each other, and in the case of legal relations between them (involves the emergence of mutual rights and obligations) - the force acquires its metaphysical status - the right of force in the form the corresponding authority of the stronger side is relatively weaker. The question is: in the majority of cases, whether the exercise of the right of power by a more powerful party has been decided in favor of such a party. Slave right, serfdom - a vivid confirmation of that. Only with the first bourgeois revolutions and the introduction of the law of formal equality, the right to inequality as the official fixation of the right of power disappeared from the historical arena. But the right of force ceased to exist with the introduction of the right of formal equality. It lost its institutional forms in the form of fixation of the status of slaves, other groups of "dependent" in the first legal acts of antiquity, guilds and other restrictions of the medieval era, etc. Instead, it has taken other forms - economic, political, organizational, and so on. In other words, the power of law has become a veiled form today, where representatives of these circles exercise their power indirectly, hiding behind the “fig” piece of popular slogans of democracy, equality, and solidarity among the general public. The foregoing may suggest that the right to power is a negative factor in the development of human civilization, which every means must counteract. In the case of the open exercise of the right of force in the form of aggression, crime or other forms of abuse of the right of force, it really must be recognized as a deconstructive force that damages the normal development of the social organism. In the absence of a sign of abuse of the right force, the latter should be considered as a means of "pulling" to its level of the weaker party, which is in relations with representatives of such force. There is nothing accidental in nature, including social, and therefore the right of force should be regarded as an integral attribute of its development. We must combat the abuse of the right of power, not its overcoming, which we regard as having any advantages in various spheres of human activity. Conclusions. Based on the above, the following areas of study are promising: political and legal mechanisms for counteracting institutional manifestations of abuse of the right of force, axiological problems of self-limitation of the right of force.

Organized Complexity of Digital Business Strategy: A Configurational Perspective

How should firms configure organizational capabilities to achieve competitive advantage in complex digital environments? To answer this question, we investigate parsimonious configurations for high firm performance in digital environments characterized by organized complexity. We adopt a configurational perspective accompanied by a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to explicate complex nonlinear relationships among key digital and non-digital capabilities in the form of conjunction, equifinality, and asymmetry in producing the outcome. With this approach, we shift attention from individual capabilities to configurations of capabilities to develop a better understanding of the complex role of IT in the digital world. Our analyses, using a rare and unique dataset of 376 observations for organizations in healthcare, education, manufacturing, and service sectors in the United States, reveal three key findings. First, IT-enabled information analytics capability alone is neither necessary nor sufficient in any configuration for high performance; however, it is an important component of the configurations in which it plays multifaceted roles varying from an enabling role in some contexts, to no role or a counterproductive role in other contexts. Second, we document a few parsimonious configurations emergent from complex nonlinear interactions among six organizational capabilities. Interestingly, these configurations often have an isomorphic structure that produces both high financial performance and high customer performance simultaneously. Third, the structures of configurations for high performance differ from those of not-high performance, suggesting an asymmetric view of causality that underpins organizational performance. Together, the findings provide implications for further research on complexity theory in digital business strategy, and for managers to view and redesign digital business strategy as configurations of IT and organizational capabilities.

A critical commentary on Isaiah Berlin’s philosophy of history

Isaiah Berlin famously attacked a view he called historical inevitability. He believed that a causal view of history entails the adoption of an extreme deterministic position – a kind of determinism which would rule out the possibility of free will, turning moral responsibility a notion void of meaning. His thesis was also based on the assumption that historians are not just chroniclers of the past but need to engage in moral judgments; therefore should determinism hold true of our world, our moral language – and consequently much of our historical language – would need to undergo serious revision. In this brief article we look in some detail at the arguments offered by Berlin in support of his thesis and offer criticism.

The Anti-Causal Discourse of Abū al-Ḥassan al-Ash‘arī: the Theory of Habit

Kelâm ilminde nedensellik, sebep ile sonuç arasındaki ilişkiyi konu edinmektedir. İster tabiattaki hadiselerle bağlantılı olsun, isterse Allah-âlem ilişkisiyle bağlantılı olsun neden ile sonuç arasındaki ilişkinin zorunlu bir ilişki olup olmadığı hususu nedensellik meselesi bağlamında tartışılmaktadır. Tabiatçı düşünürlere göre her bir nesnede bir tabiat vardır ve âlemdeki tüm olaylar bu tabiatlar doğrultusunda gerçekleşmektedir. Âdet nazariyesinde ise, tabiatta cereyan eden tüm olaylardaki neden-sonuç ilişkisinde bir zorunluluğun olmadığı, sadece alışkanlıklarımız neticesinde bir ilişkinin olduğu kanısına varıldığı ifade edilmektedir. Bu çalışmada tabiattaki hadiselerin hem kendi aralarında hem de Allah Teâlâ ile olan ilişkilerinde bir zorunluluk arz edip etmediği konusu Ebu‘l-Hasan el-Eş‘arî’nin görüşleri bağlamında ele alınmaktadır. Eş‘arî, tabiatta meydana gelen hadiselerin belli bir tabiat doğrultusundan ya da nesnelerin i‘timâdlarından mütevellid olarak gerçekleştiği fikrini nedenselliği çağrıştırdığı gerekçesiyle eleştirmektedir. Ona göre tabiatta gerçekleşen tüm olaylar Allah’ın aracısız bir şekilde iradî olarak doğrudan yaratmasıyla meydana gelmektedir. Belli sebepler neticesinde belli sonuçların gerçekleşmesi zorunlu değildir, bilakis sonuçların bu şekilde gerçekleştiğine dair yaklaşım insanın alışkanlıklarından kaynaklanmaktadır. Eş‘arî ve takipçisi kelâmcılar tabiattaki hadiselerde bir belirsizlik ya da düzensizliğin varlığına karşı çıktıkları gibi, sebebin sonucunu doğurduğu şeklindeki nedensellik görüşüne de karşı çıkmaktadırlar.

Humeans are out of this world

I defend the following argument in this paper. Premise 1: Laws of nature are intrinsic to the universe. Premise 2: Humeanism maintains that laws of nature are extrinsic to the universe. Conclusion: Humeanism is false. This argument is inspired by Hawthorne’s (Nous 38(2):351–358, 2004) argument in “Humeans are out of their Minds”. My argument differs from his; Hawthorne focuses on Humean views of causation and how they interact with judgments about consciousness. He thinks Humeans are forced to treat certain mental properties (insofar as they involve causal features) as extrinsic to conscious minds. I do not discuss causation or consciousness here. I focus on Humean accounts of laws. I argue that Humean laws are extrinsic to the entire universe. As such, Humeans are not just out of their minds; they are out of this world. I aim to show that premises 1 and 2 are well-supported and that denying either of them comes at a cost. Nevertheless, some Humeans may prefer to reject 1 or 2 rather than give up Humeanism. Even if the Humean takes one of these routes, the argument above has philosophical import: it shows that Humeanism involves surprising commitments.

Relating causal and probabilistic approaches to contextuality.

A primary goal in recent research on contextuality has been to extend this concept to cases of inconsistent connectedness, where observables have different distributions in different contexts. This article proposes a solution within the framework of probabi- listic causal models, which extend hidden-variables theories, and then demonstrates an equivalence to the contextuality-by-default (CbD) framework. CbD distinguishes contextuality from direct influences of context on observables, defining the latter purely in terms of probability distributions. Here, we take a causal view of direct influences, defining direct influence within any causal model as the probability of all latent states of the system in which a change of context changes the outcome of a measurement. Model-based contextuality (M-contextuality) is then defined as the necessity of stronger direct influences to model a full system than when considered individually. For consistently connected systems, M-contextuality agrees with standard contextuality. For general systems, it is proved that M-contextuality is equivalent to the property that any model of a system must contain 'hidden influences', meaning direct influences that go in opposite directions for different latent states, or equivalently signalling between observers that carries no information. This criterion can be taken as formalizing the 'no-conspiracy' principle that has been proposed in connection with CbD. M-contextuality is then proved to be equivalent to CbD-contextuality, thus providing a new interpretation of CbD-contextuality as the non-existence of a model for a system without hidden direct influences. This article is part of the theme issue 'Contextuality and probability in quantum mechanics and beyond'.

Mental causation as joint causation

This paper explores and defends the idea that mental properties and their physical bases jointly cause their physical effects. The paper evaluates the view as an emergentist response to the exclusion problem, comparing it with a competing nonreductive physicalist solution, the compatibilist solution, and argues that the joint causation view is more defensible than commonly supposed. Specifically, the paper distinguishes two theses of closure, Strong Closure and Weak Closure, two causal exclusion problems, the overdetermination problem and the supervenience problem, and argues that emergentists can avoid the overdetermination problem by denying Strong Closure and respond to the supervenience problem by accepting the joint causation view.

Lord, Errol. The Importance of Being Rational. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018. Pp. 288. $60.00 (cloth).

Lord, Errol. <i>The Importance of Being Rational</i>. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018. Pp. 288. $60.00 (cloth).

Causation and Liability to Defensive Harm

AbstractAn influential view in the ethics of self‐defence is that causal responsibility for an unjust threat is a necessary requirement for liability to defensive harm. In this article, I argue against this view by providing intuitive counterexamples and by revealing weaknesses in the arguments offered in its favour. In response, adherents of the causal view have advanced the idea that although causally inefficacious agents are not liable to defensive harm, the fact that they may deserve harm can justify harming them in the course of defending oneself. I argue that this strategy is ad hoc and leads to more problems than it solves. Once we allow normative facts outside our account of liability to affect a person's moral protection against harm, the lieability verdicts cannot tell us whether there is a relevant moral asymmetry between the victim and the target of defence. In conclusion, the causal view is wrong and causal responsibility for an unjust threat is not a necessary requirement for liability to defensive harm.

Canine papillomavirus types 1 and 2 in classical papillomas: High abundance, different morphological associations and frequent co-infections

Canine papillomatosis is mainly attributed to papillomavirus infections. Papillomavirus DNA is also frequently identified in healthy skin, and evidence of high papillomavirus diversity complicates this simplistic view of causality. The aim of this study was to determine how frequently canine papillomas contain papillomavirus DNA and express viral protein, and how these factors correlate to the histology and anatomic location. Fifty-three archived, formalin-fixed samples of canine papillomas and eight samples of other proliferative skin lesions from dogs were included. Samples were re-evaluated histologically, tested for papillomavirus L1-antigen using immunohistochemistry, and for papillomavirus DNA with PCR assays and molecular sequencing.Most papillomas from haired skin contained papillomavirus DNA (96%) and antigen (92%). Of oral papillomas, 88% were positive for both papillomavirus DNA and antigen. Approximately 50% of non-papilloma proliferations and papillomas from eyelid/conjunctiva specimens contained viral DNA, but antigen was present in only 12% of eyelid/conjunctiva papillomas and in none of the non-papilloma proliferations. The presence of viral antigen was highly correlated with histological indicators of viral infection, including intranuclear inclusions, koilocytes, cytoplasmatic vacuolation and dysplasia. The viruses found were mainly CPV1 and CPV2. CPV1 dominated in oral infections, while CPV2 dominated in cutaneous endophytic papillomas. Co-infections with CPV1 and CPV2 accounted for about 20% of all detected infections. These results support a role for papillomaviruses in canine cutaneous and oral, exophytic and endophytic papillomas and support previously raised doubts about their role in squamous papillomas from eyelid/conjunctiva specimens.

Critical realism and performance measurement and management

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the implications of adopting a critical realist position for the study of performance measurement and management (PMM) systems. Design/methodology/approach This paper discusses recent challenges to knowledge creation in PMM, arguing that overcoming these will require revisiting often implicit philosophical assumptions related to how the world is and how we learn about it. A critical realist perspective is explored and illustrated with the case of a software company attempting to empower and motivate its team. Findings Critical realism provides a means of building interdisciplinary knowledge in PMM. In addition to a generative view of causality, critical realism could augment a systems view of PMM by adopting a stratified view of reality and through its applied approach to knowledge building. The case illustrates the RRREIC approach and highlights the interplay of mechanisms of different scales and how this requires interdisciplinarity. Research limitations/implications Approaching the study of PMM with critical realism requires going beyond a particular tool or practice to understand the theory behind it. Such an approach can facilitate a layered, nuanced analysis of the issues facing organizations in a changing context. Originality/value This paper adds to discussion of philosophical topics in management and PMM and could help resolve ongoing challenges to knowledge building in the field, especially around barriers to conducting interdisciplinary research. In combination with rigorous methods, a strong philosophical base can facilitate relevant, lasting theories that can respond to a changing organizational context.

The Internal Clock: A Manifestation of a Misguided Mechanistic View of Causation?

Across various subfields within psychology, mechanistic causation is invoked regularly. When the temporal contiguity of the typical cause-effect relation is violated, mechanistic causation often assigns causal roles to mediating hypothetical constructs to account for observed effects. Two primary consequences of mechanistic causation are that 1) the proposed hypothetical constructs add what many behavior analysts consider an unnecessary step in the causal chain, and 2) these constructs then become the focus of study thereafter diverting attention from more accessible "causes." Constructs do not contribute directly to determining the control of behavior; thus, their reification as "causes" often distracts from variables that do fulfill a causal role. In this review, these consequences are discussed in relation to theories of interval timing proposing an internal clock. Not only has this clock been said to be a cause of behavior in experiments on temporally regulated behavior, but also the clock itself has been a frequent subject of study within the timing literature. Despite descriptive accounts of this sort initially serving a heuristic function for model development, the promotion from descriptive aid to causal factor has the potential to limit much of the heuristic value that mechanistic models of causation can provide to the analysis of behavior. Problems related to construct reification are less likely to be at issue when functional relations and the processes of establishing such behavior are emphasized as alternatives to mechanistic causation alone.

The Problem of Causality in Object-Oriented Ontology

Abstract Object-oriented ontologists understand relations of cause and effect to be sensory or aesthetic in nature, not involving direct interaction between objects. Four major arguments are used to defend an indirect view of causation: 1) that there are analogies between perception and causation, 2) that the indirect view can account for cases of causation which a direct view cannot, 3) an Occasionalist argument that direct interaction would make causation impossible, and 4) that the view simply fits better with object-oriented ontology’s own premises. However, each argument is fallacious or otherwise unconvincing. The first affirms the consequent. The second fails because the relevant cases can easily be accounted for with a direct view. The third makes false assumptions about the relation between parts and wholes. And the fourth can also be used to argue against object-oriented ontology. Many of these problems can be traced to the methodological aspects of object-oriented ontology and might be avoided by emphasizing the role of non-argumentative justification in metaphysics.

فکرة السببیة عند فلاسفة الإسلام من منظور نقدی

Muslim Philosophers’ View of Causality: A Critical Perspective The concept of causality is so important in the history of philosophical thought that it has preoccupied ‎the minds of philosophers since the ancient times. In Islamic philosophy, it is such an important issue ‎as it is related to faith and Islamic creed. It is concerned with what goes on in the universe and nature, ‎and the context of human existence in terms of the relation between causes and effects, the laws of ‎order, providence and consistency between things. This is what this paper attempts to revisit through ‎the discussion of the views of the Mu'tazila and Ash'ariyya and other Muslim philosophers like Al-Kindi, ‎Al-Farabi, Avicenna, Al-Ghazali, and Averroes about the issue of causality from a critical perspective.‎ Averroes criticized the Asha’ara in different ways and did the same with Al-Ghazali for denying the ‎necessity of the relation between causes and effects. Thus, he showed the philosophical and ‎evidential dimensions inherent in the concept of causality.‎ فکرة السببية تعد من الأفکار المهمة فى تاريخ الفکر الفلسفى ، فقد شغلت أذهان المفکرين قديما وحديثا ، وکان لها المکان الملحوظ فى الفکر الإنسانى بوصفها من القضايا الفلسفية المعاصرة التى لها أهميتها الکبرى فى مجال الفلسفة الإسلامية ، فهى قضية عقائدية ، الهدف منها معرفة ما يجرى فى الکون والطبيعة ، وما يحيط بالإنسان فى إطار العلاقة الضرورية بين الأسباب والمسببات ، وأحکام النظام والترتيب والتدبير والإتساق بين الأشياء ، وهذا ما أوضحناه من خلال رأى المعتزلة والأشاعرة والفلاسفة المسلمين منهم الکندى والفارابى وابن سينا والغزالى وابن رشد، حول فکرة السببية من منظور نقدى . وإذا کان ابن رشد نقد الأشاعرة نقدا متعدد الجوانب، فإنه نقد أيضا الغزالى الذى أنکر الضرورة بين الأسباب والمسببات، وبذلک حاول إبراز الجوانب الفلسفية والبرهانية الکامنة فى أعماق فکرة السببية.

SELECTION BY CONSEQUENCES, CAUSALITY, AND ESSENTIALISM: COMMENTS ON LEÃO AND CARVALHO NETO

The target paper is a conceptual-historical analysis that downplays the possibility of an incoherence in Skinner’s early thought between his commitment to a mechanistic view of causality (expressed in his early definition of the reflex as a necessary relation) and an implicit, incipient form of the thesis of selection by consequences he supposedly held at the time. I argue, however, that there is no incoherence: A mechanistic view of causality is compatible with the thesis of selection by consequences. Skinner’s mistake was to claim the contrary later on. The target paper perpetuates this mistake, as well as the mistake that selection by consequences is incompatible with essentialism.

In praise of Sorensen’s ‘blockage theory’ on shadows

In his famous book Seeing Dark Things: The Philosophy of Shadows (2008), Roy Sorensen put forward a ‘blocking theory of shadows’, a causal view on these entities according to which a shadow is an absence of light caused by blockage. This approach allows him to solve a quite famous riddle on shadows, ‘the Yale puzzle’, that was devised by Robert Fogelin in the late 1960s and that Sorensen presents in the form mentioned by Bas van Fraassen (1989). Istvan Aranyosi has recently criticized Sorensen’s solution to the Yale puzzle, on the grounds that it does not resist another version of the riddle, that Aranyosi calls ‘the Bilkent puzzle’. A new perspective on shadows, the ‘Material Exstitution View’, that allegedly permits to solve both puzzles, could be adopted as an alternative. In this paper I will show that Sorensen’s blockage theory can actually handle both the Yale and the Bilkent puzzle, plus another one that I put forward (‘the donut puzzle’), which instead is fatal to Aranyosi’s position. As Sorensen puts it, nothing aside from the original blockage of light is needed. Keywords: Aranyosi, blockage theory, material exstitution view, shadow, Sorensen, Yale puzzle.