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Michael Strevens on explanation and modern scientific knowledge

Thing in itself

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Is There a Genuine Causality?

David Wheeler: Is it plausible that at any one level there is something that happens that isn't reducible to the level below in an explanatory way? He says we have some extremely successful reductive stories where you can explain exactly why it is that the thing happened at the level of medium sized objects, given the fundamental physics. But he argues most phenomena are worth thinking about a tiny little percentage of them and they're better amenable to analysis than more complicated things.Wheeler: So I think that's what really persuades me that the reductionist principle is going to is going to pan out.

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