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SUMMARY:Using organic chemistry to probe the limits of interventionism - G
 eorgina Statham (Faculty of Philosophy)
DTSTART:20161012T120000Z
DTEND:20161012T133000Z
UID:TALK68131@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:31287
DESCRIPTION:A chemical reaction is a causal process in which one set of ch
 emical \nspecies is converted into another set of chemical species. Chemis
 ts are \nable to intervene on this process\, influencing the product distr
 ibution \nby manipulating a range of variables. This process looks very mu
 ch like \ninterventionist causation\; at a cursory glance\, chemical react
 ions \ntherefore seem well suited for interventionist causal modeling. I t
 est \nthis supposition\, using James Woodward's interventionist theory of 
 \ncausation to model three different ways that chemists are able to \nmani
 pulate the reaction conditions in order to control the outcome of a \nreac
 tion. These consist in manipulations to the reaction kinetics\, \nthermody
 namics\, and whether the kinetics or thermodynamics predominates. \nIt is 
 possible to construct interventionist causal models of these kinds \nof ma
 nipulation\, and therefore to account for them using Woodward's \ntheory. 
 However\, I show that there is an alternate\, more illuminating \nway of t
 hinking about the third kind of reaction control\, according to \nwhich ch
 emists are actually manipulating which causal system is \ninstantiated. Ou
 r ability to manipulate which system is instantiated is \nan important par
 t of our ability to control the world\, as is therefore \nespecially relev
 ant to interventionism. Thus\, considering examples from \norganic chemist
 ry leads to the identification of an important extension \nto Woodward's t
 heory.
LOCATION:Seminar Room 2\, Department of History and Philosophy of Science
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