Where Grounding and Causation Part Ways: Comments on Jonathan Schaffer

• Author(s) / Creator(s)

  • Koslicki, Kathrin

• Does the notion of ground, as it has recently been employed by metaphysicians, point to a single unified phenomenon (the “Unity Hypothesis”)? Jonathan Schaffer holds that the phenomenon of grounding exhibits the unity characteristic of a single genus. In defense of this hypothesis, Schaffer proposes to take seriously the analogy between causation and grounding. More specifically, Schaffer argues that both grounding and causation are best approached through a single formalism, viz., that utilized by structural equation models of causation. In this paper, I present several concerns which suggest that the structural equation model does not transfer as smoothly from the case of causation to the case of grounding as Schaffer would have us believe. If it can in fact be shown that significant differences surface in how the formalism in question applies to the two types of phenomena in question, Schaffer’s attempt at establishing an analogy between grounding and causation has thereby been weakened and, as a result, the application of the Unity Hypothesis to the case of grounding once again stands in need of justification.

• Date created

  2016

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Unity
  • Structural Equation Models
  • Determinate/Determinable Distinction
  • Dependence
  • Causation
  • Grounding
  • Explanation

• Type of Item

  Article (Published)

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3BN9XH6Q

• License

  © 2016 K. Koslicki et al. This version of this article is open access and can be downloaded and shared. The original author(s) and source must be cited.