{"title":"Soft control: Furthering the case for Modified Interventionist Theory","authors":"Toby Friend","doi":"10.1016/j.shpsa.2024.09.004","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Not all testing interventions that we might want to perform, or need to be performable in principle, fail to cause off-path variables. This is a problem for Woodward’s Orthodox Interventionist Theory of causation, but not the ‘Modified Interventionist Theory’, which I proposed in a previous issue of this journal (<span><span>Friend, 2021</span></span>). As I explain here, this is because only the modified theory permits ‘soft control’. I will survey three different kinds of case (beyond the case considered previously) in which soft control is necessary for a reasonable application of interventionism. These include cases where soft control makes intervention more practical, physically possible, and causally probative in the context of mechanisms. I’ll also take the opportunity to remove some of the confusing aspects of my original formulation of the modified theory. The result, I believe, constitutes a strong case for it.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49467,"journal":{"name":"Studies in History and Philosophy of Science","volume":"108 ","pages":"Pages 93-100"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4000,"publicationDate":"2024-11-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Studies in History and Philosophy of Science","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0039368124001365","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"HISTORY & PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Not all testing interventions that we might want to perform, or need to be performable in principle, fail to cause off-path variables. This is a problem for Woodward’s Orthodox Interventionist Theory of causation, but not the ‘Modified Interventionist Theory’, which I proposed in a previous issue of this journal (Friend, 2021). As I explain here, this is because only the modified theory permits ‘soft control’. I will survey three different kinds of case (beyond the case considered previously) in which soft control is necessary for a reasonable application of interventionism. These include cases where soft control makes intervention more practical, physically possible, and causally probative in the context of mechanisms. I’ll also take the opportunity to remove some of the confusing aspects of my original formulation of the modified theory. The result, I believe, constitutes a strong case for it.
期刊介绍：
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science is devoted to the integrated study of the history, philosophy and sociology of the sciences. The editors encourage contributions both in the long-established areas of the history of the sciences and the philosophy of the sciences and in the topical areas of historiography of the sciences, the sciences in relation to gender, culture and society and the sciences in relation to arts. The Journal is international in scope and content and publishes papers from a wide range of countries and cultural traditions.
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