Tropes as Mechanisms
Persson, Johannes LU
(2005)
In Foundations of Science
10(4).
p.371-393
- Abstract
- This paper is an attempt to further our understanding of mechanisms conceived of as ontologically separable from laws. What opportunities are there for a mechanistic perspective to be independent of, or even more fundamental than, a law perspective? Advocates of the mechanistic view often play with the possibility of internal and external reliability, or with the paralleling possibilities of enforcing, counteracting, redirecting, etc., the mechanisms' power to produce To further this discussion I adopt a trope ontology. It is independent of the notion of law, and can easily be adapted to account for such characteristics of mechanisms. The idea of tropes as mechanisms is worked out in some detail. According to the resulting picture, there... (More)
- This paper is an attempt to further our understanding of mechanisms conceived of as ontologically separable from laws. What opportunities are there for a mechanistic perspective to be independent of, or even more fundamental than, a law perspective? Advocates of the mechanistic view often play with the possibility of internal and external reliability, or with the paralleling possibilities of enforcing, counteracting, redirecting, etc., the mechanisms' power to produce To further this discussion I adopt a trope ontology. It is independent of the notion of law, and can easily be adapted to account for such characteristics of mechanisms. The idea of tropes as mechanisms is worked out in some detail. According to the resulting picture, there is still an opportunity to link mechanisms and laws. But while the predominant law view conceives of mechanistic approaches as special kinds of law accounts, this study indicates that the converse may be true. Law accounts are special cases of mechanistic accounts, and they work only in those worlds where the mechanisms are of the right kind. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/162955
- author
- Persson, Johannes
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2005
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Universals, mechanism, Laws of nature, Elster, causation
- in
- Foundations of Science
- volume
- 10
- issue
- 4
- pages
- 371 - 393
- publisher
- Springer
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:31044447243
- ISSN
- 1233-1821
- DOI
- 10.1007/s10699-004-5247-0
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 3c405094-b39b-47d0-98ca-c71e7c33ff49 (old id 162955)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-01 15:35:09
- date last changed
- 2022-01-28 06:05:36
@article{3c405094-b39b-47d0-98ca-c71e7c33ff49,
abstract = {{This paper is an attempt to further our understanding of mechanisms conceived of as ontologically separable from laws. What opportunities are there for a mechanistic perspective to be independent of, or even more fundamental than, a law perspective? Advocates of the mechanistic view often play with the possibility of internal and external reliability, or with the paralleling possibilities of enforcing, counteracting, redirecting, etc., the mechanisms' power to produce To further this discussion I adopt a trope ontology. It is independent of the notion of law, and can easily be adapted to account for such characteristics of mechanisms. The idea of tropes as mechanisms is worked out in some detail. According to the resulting picture, there is still an opportunity to link mechanisms and laws. But while the predominant law view conceives of mechanistic approaches as special kinds of law accounts, this study indicates that the converse may be true. Law accounts are special cases of mechanistic accounts, and they work only in those worlds where the mechanisms are of the right kind.}},
author = {{Persson, Johannes}},
issn = {{1233-1821}},
keywords = {{Universals; mechanism; Laws of nature; Elster; causation}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{4}},
pages = {{371--393}},
publisher = {{Springer}},
series = {{Foundations of Science}},
title = {{Tropes as Mechanisms}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10699-004-5247-0}},
doi = {{10.1007/s10699-004-5247-0}},
volume = {{10}},
year = {{2005}},
}