Making Things Happen

A Theory of Causal Explanation
ISBN13: 9780195189537ISBN10: 0195189531 Paperback, 432 pages
Sep 2005,  In Stock

Price:

$30.00 (04)
Winner of the 2005 Lakatos Award

Description

Woodward's long awaited book is an attempt to construct a comprehensive account of causation explanation that applies to a wide variety of causal and explanatory claims in different areas of science and everyday life. The book engages some of the relevant literature from other disciplines, as Woodward weaves together examples, counterexamples, criticisms, defenses, objections, and replies into a convincing defense of the core of his theory, which is that we can analyze causation by appeal to the notion of manipulation.

Reviews

"Making Things Happen contains an elaborate presentation and defense of Woodward's manipulability theory of causation and causal explanation, a powerful alternative to extant theories in the field...The book contains an enormous wealth of ideas and detailed arguments...an extremely important contribution to the debates about causation and explanation. It will become an indispensable reference for anyone who wants to work on these topics."--Henk W. de Regt, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

"Careful, detailed, often eloquent."--Clark Glymour, British Journal for Philosophy of Science

Product Details

432 pages; 6-1/8 x 9-1/4; ISBN13: 978-0-19-518953-7ISBN10: 0-19-518953-1

About the Author(s)

James Woodward is the author of a number of articles in the philosophy of science. He has taught at the California Institute of Technology since 1983 where he is presently the J.O. and Juliette Koepfli Professor of Humanities.

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