Physics and Astronomy Calendar

In her paper, “Causality and Determination,” Elizabeth Anscombe advanced an approach to causation that Peter Godfrey-Smith has dubbed “causal minimalism.” In this approach, causation is not one thing, but many. Causal relations depend upon a heterogeneous set of specific activities – like bonding, pushing, tearing or fighting. My aim in this talk is to pursue a related strategy for compositional relations between parts and wholes – whether these be between atoms and molecules, tissues and organs, or children and families. Composition, like causation, is not one thing, but many – largely because parts are bound into wholes by causal relations.