When Are Structural Equation Models Apt? Causation versus Grounding

Jansson, Lina

Abstract

While much about the notion of ground in contemporary metaphysics is contested, there is large agreement that ground is closely connected to a certain kind of explanation. Recently, Jonathan Schaffer and Alastair Wilson have argued that ground is a relation that is very closely related to causation and that grounding explanations should be given an account in broadly interventionist terms through the use of structural equations and directed graphs. Such an approach offers the potential benefit of a largely unified framework for explanations with different relations, or different species of the same relation, backing different types of explanation. However, this chapter argues that this benefit cannot be realized since there are crucial differences between causal explanations and grounding explanations in how we can evaluate the aptness of the models in question.

Citation

Jansson, L. (2018). When Are Structural Equation Models Apt? Causation versus Grounding. Explanation Beyond Causation: Philosophical Perspectives on Non-Causal Explanations (250-266). Oxford University Press (OUP). https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198777946.003.0013

• Publication Date: Jun 28, 2018
• Deposit Date: Sep 15, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 29, 2020
• Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
• Pages: 250-266
• Book Title: Explanation Beyond Causation: Philosophical Perspectives on Non-Causal Explanations
• Chapter Number: 13
• ISBN: 9780198777946
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198777946.003.0013
• Keywords: grounding; explanation; structural equations; aptness; causation
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1123464
• Publisher URL: https://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/oso/9780198777946.001.0001/oso-9780198777946-chapter-13