
Contents
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1. Russell's Causal Eliminativism 1. Russell's Causal Eliminativism
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2. Causal Laws as Differential Equations 2. Causal Laws as Differential Equations
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3. Locality 3. Locality
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4. Determinism or Uncaused Events? 4. Determinism or Uncaused Events?
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5. Analytical Mechanics and Teleology 5. Analytical Mechanics and Teleology
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Further Reading Further Reading
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References References
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31 Causation in Classical Mechanics
Get accessMarc Lange is Bowman and Gordon Gray Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His publications include An Introduction to the Philosophy of Physics: Locality, Fields, Energy, and Mass (Blackwell, 2002) and ‘How Can Instantaneous Velocity Fulfill its Causal Role?’ in Philosophical Review 114 (2005).
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Published:02 January 2010
Cite
Abstract
Russell might be interpreted as arguing that physics reveals there to be no causal relations since physics has no need to posit them (just as Laplace said to Napoleon that physics has no need to posit God). Of course, whether physics needs to posit causal relations depends upon what physics needs to do. Russell appears to presume that a physical theory needs merely to predict certain quantities from others. For that purpose, the bare equations suffice. However, it is doubtful that the bare equations are enough to fund scientific explanations. The force on a body and the body's mass apparently explain why the body undergoes a given acceleration, whereas the force and acceleration do not explain why the body possesses a certain mass.
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