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Configurational Explanations Alessia Damonte Configurational Explanations Alessia Damonte Accepted for publication with ISBN 978-88-255-1888-7 Please Note. The printed version may be different intentionally blank page Acknowledgments The book has taken its shape over years and experiences, during which I have built up a remarkable debt of gratitude. I owe much to my students: thank you for all your challenges. Thanks to the guests of the doctoral Summer School ReSPoS and the MeMa seminars in Milan for the many fruitful discussions on causation. Thanks to the participants to the Chess seminars in Durham, the APSA section on Mixed Methods, the PSA Method Conference, and the ecpr joint session of workshops for their comments on previous attempts to get to the point. Thanks to the Compasss community and, among them, to Airo Hino and Adrian Duşa for their kind support in the inevitable moments of bewilderment. Special thanks to Carsten Schneider, Benoit Rihoux, and Charles Ragin for their generous teaching that, long ago, initiated this all. I gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the European Grant ERC-ADG-2015 694632. The usual disclaimer applies. AD Milan, October 2019 intentionally blank page Contents Introduction ....................................................................................................... 15 Part I. THE BROADER PICTURE ................................................................. 23 1. Explanations as deductions ................................................................... 25 1.1 The shape of a statement ......................................................................... 26 1.2 Relationships and rules ............................................................................ 27 1.3 The ideal shape of a valid deduction ....................................................... 32 1.4 The “becauses” that make syllogisms causal ........................................... 34 1.4.1 The four causes ................................................................................................ 35 1.5 Limits of categorical deductions.............................................................. 38 2. Inference as propositional calculus ...................................................... 40 2.1 Stoic sentences ........................................................................................ 41 2.2 The truth of simple sentences .................................................................. 42 2.3 The truth of compound sentences ............................................................ 44 2.3.1 Conjunctions .................................................................................................... 44 2.3.2 Disjunctions ..................................................................................................... 45 2.3.3 Conditional ...................................................................................................... 46 2.3.4 Formal equivalences ........................................................................................ 49 2.4 Schemata ................................................................................................. 53 2.4.1 The first indemonstrable .................................................................................. 54 2.4.2 The second indemonstrable .............................................................................. 55 2.4.3 Further schemata .............................................................................................. 56 2.5 Themata .................................................................................................. 58 2.6 Strengths and limits of schemata ............................................................. 59 2.6.1 Disconnected arguments .................................................................................. 60 2.6.2 Redundant arguments ....................................................................................... 60 2.6.3 Fallacies ........................................................................................................... 61 2.6.4 Incomplete arguments ...................................................................................... 63 3. Modern explanation .............................................................................. 64 3.1 Sitting the major premisses on the empirical ground ............................... 65 3.2 Unraveling complex causation ................................................................ 69 3.2.1 Mill’s problem of induction, and his solutions ................................................. 70 a) Space and time of causation ......................................................................... 71 10 b) Causes versus conditions ............................................................................. 73 c) Mechanical and chemical causation ............................................................ 74 3.2.2 Canons and Methods of induction .................................................................... 75 a) The first canon ............................................................................................. 75 b) The second canon......................................................................................... 77 c) The third canon ............................................................................................ 79 d) The fourth and fifth canon ............................................................................ 80 3.2.3 The many issues of complex causation ............................................................ 81 a) Issues of Plurality ........................................................................................ 82 b) Issues of Composition and Constitution ....................................................... 83 c) the Deductive Method .................................................................................. 84 3.2.4 Modes of explanation ....................................................................................... 87 a) First mode: combination .............................................................................. 87 b) Second mode: intermediation ....................................................................... 88 c) Third mode: subsumption ............................................................................. 89 3.3 Explanation between induction and deduction ........................................ 90 3.3.1 Deductive models of explanation ..................................................................... 90 3.3.2 Capturing potentials ......................................................................................... 94 3.3.3 The problem of confirmation in explanations ................................................... 97 3.3.4 Operational solutions ..................................................................................... 100 4. Back to square one? ............................................................................ 104 4.1 Relevance, causality, and causation....................................................... 105 4.2 Mechanistic models of causation in philosophy .................................... 109 4.3 Explanatory mechanisms and their requirements .................................. 112 a) Desiderata ................................................................................................. 114 b) Model specification and how-answers........................................................ 115 c) Salmon-complete constitutive mechanisms ................................................. 116 Part II. THE STRATEGY AND THE TECHNIQUE .................................... 119 5. Configurations and inus causation ..................................................... 121 5.1 inus causation ........................................................................................ 121 5.1.1 Necessity, sufficiency, and vending machines................................................ 122 5.1.2 Full explanations ............................................................................................ 124 a) Checking for plurality ................................................................................ 124 b) Checking for Constitution and Composition............................................... 125 5.1.3 Principles of inus composition ....................................................................... 126 6. Imagining machines ............................................................................ 128 6.1 The relevance of stage setting ............................................................... 128 6.1.1 Salmon-completeness of nomological machines ............................................ 129 6.2 Cultivating mechanistic imagination ..................................................... 130 6.2.1 Learning from correlational literature ............................................................ 131 6.2.2 Learning from case-oriented literature ........................................................... 133 11 6.3 Summing up .......................................................................................... 135 7. A language to render inus causation .................................................. 137 7.1 Presence and absence of a property ....................................................... 137 a) The truth table ........................................................................................... 140 7.2 Compounds ........................................................................................... 142 7.3 Substitutes ............................................................................................
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