Power and influence : the metaphysics of reductive explanation / Richard Corry.

First edition.

9780191876332 (electronic book)

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2019.

English

1 online resource : illustrations.

B835.5

120

The world is a complex place, and this complexity is an obstacle to our attempts to explain, predict, and control it. In this text, Richard Corry investigates the assumptions that are built into the reductive method of explanation - the method whereby we study the components of a complex system in relative isolation and use the information so gained to explain or predict the behaviour of the complex whole. He investigates the metaphysical presuppositions built into the reductive method, seeking to ascertain what the world must be like in order that the method could work. Corry argues that the method assumes the existence of causal powers that manifest causal influence - a relatively unrecognised ontological category, of which forces are a paradigm example. The success of the reductive method, therefore, is an argument for the existence of such causal influences.

The world is a complex place, and this complexity is an obstacle to our attempts to explain, predict, and control it. In this text, Richard Corry investigates the assumptions that are built into the reductive method of explanation - the method whereby we study the components of a complex system in relative isolation and use the information so gained to explain or predict the behaviour of the complex whole. He investigates the metaphysical presuppositions built into the reductive method, seeking to ascertain what the world must be like in order that the method could work. Corry argues that the method assumes the existence of causal powers that manifest causal influence - a relatively unrecognised ontological category, of which forces are a paradigm example. The success of the reductive method, therefore, is an argument for the existence of such causal influences.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Access limited to authorized users.

Description based on online resource; title from home page (viewed on July 31, 2019).

Oxford scholarship online.

Print version: 9780198840718

Online Resources > Ebooks
All Resources