The Routledge Handbook of Causality and Causal Methods

by Phyllis Illari (Editor), Federica Russo (Editor)

Overview

The Routledge Handbook of Causality and Causal Methods adopts a pluralistic, interdisciplinary approach to causality. It formulates distinct questions and problems of causality as they arise across scientific and policy fields. Exploring, in a comparative way, how these questions and problems are addressed in different areas, the Handbook fosters dialogue and exchange. It emphasizes the role of the researchers and the normative considerations that arise in the development of methodological and empirical approaches. The Handbook includes authors from all over the world and with many different disciplinary backgrounds, and its 51 chapters appear in print here for the first time. The chapters are organized into the following seven parts:

I. Causal Pluralism, from Theory to Practice

II. Causal Theory and the Role of Researchers

III. Features of Causal Systems

IV. Causal methods, Experimentation and Observation

V. Measurement and Data

VI. Causality, Knowledge, and Action

VII. Causal Theory across Disciplinary Borders

Essential reading for scholars interested in an interdisciplinary approach to causality and causal methods, the volume is also a valuable resource for advanced undergraduates as well as for graduate students interested in delving into the rich field of causality.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781040223505
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	11/26/2024
Series:	Routledge Handbooks in Philosophy
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	676

About the Author

Phyllis Illari is Professor of Philosophy of Science in the Department of Science and Technology Studies at University College London. She has published extensively on causality, mechanisms, evidence and information. With Federica Russo, she co-authored Causality. Philosophical Theory Meets Scientific Practice (2014) and co-edited the European Journal for Philosophy of Science for four years.

Federica Russo is Professor of Philosophy and Ethics of Techno-Science and holds the Westerdijk Chair at the Freudenthal Institute, Utrecht University. She is the author of Techno-Scientific Practices. An Informational Approach (2022), Causality and Causal Modelling in the Social Sciences (2009). With Phyllis Illari, she co-authored Causality. Philosophical Theory Meets Scientific Practice (2014) and co-edited the European Journal for Philosophy of Science for four years.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Mosaic of Causal Theory: Whence and Whither Phyllis Illari and Federica Russo Part I: Causal Pluralism from Theory to Practice 1. The Plurality of Causal Pluralisms Mariusz Maziarz 2. What Caused the COVID-19 Pandemic? Trisha Greenhalgh, Eivind Engebretsen, and Tony Sandset Part II: Causal Theory and the Role of Researchers What is the variety of roles of the researchers (or groups of researchers) in the practices of causal discovery and validation? 3. Seeing Further: The Role of Modelers and Simulation in Causal Inference Miles MacLeod 4. Causal Thinking in Global Health: Pragmatism and the Causal Mosaic Erman Sözüdoğru How is causality fundamental and/or practical in different disciplines? 5. Why Adoption of Causal Modeling Methods Requires Some Metaphysics H.K. Andersen 6. The Physical Infrastructure Supporting Causal Cognition: Locality and Asymmetry Mathias Frisch 7. Quiet Causation and its Many Uses in Science Mauricio Suárez When are deeper ontological assumptions important and when are they not? 8. Causality in General Relativity (and Beyond): Heuristics from Metaphysics Samuel C. Fletcher 9. Causation in Policy Science: Knowledge, Power, Meaning, Agency and Context John Grin Part III: Features of Causal Systems Are there levels of causation? If so, what are they? 10. The Interplay Between Single-case and Generic Causation in Qualitative Social Science Research Judith Schoonenboom 11. Causation Across Levels Throughout the Sciences David Danks and Maralee Harrell 12. Social Causes and Epistemic (In)justice in Medical Machine Learning-mediated Medical Practices Giorgia Pozzi and Juan M. Durán What are the boundaries of (causal) systems? How should we establish or cope with them? 13. How are (Causal) Systems Defined and How are Influences from Outside Dealt With? Claus Beisbart 14. Individuation of Cross-Cutting Causal Systems in Cognitive Science and Behavioral Ecology Marie I. Kaiser and Beate Krickel 15. Closure of Constraints and the Individuation of Causal Systems in Biology Charbel N. El-Hani, Jeferson Gabriel da Encarnação Coutinho, and Clarissa Machado Pinto Leite What aspects of causal complexity are important and how are they handled in research? 16. The Challenge of Complexity: Causal Inference and Simulation Models in Macroeconomics Alessio Moneta and Sebastiaan Tieleman 17. A Pluralistic (Mosaic) Approach to Causality in Health Complexity Federica Russo, Alex Broadbent, Brian Castellani, Suzanne Fustolo-Gunnink, Naja Hulvej Rod, Morten Hulvej Rod, Spencer Moore, Harry Rutter, Karien Stronks, and Jeroen Uleman What are the challenges of causal cycles, and what are the best ways of meeting them? 18. Causal Cycles in Biology William Bechtel and Andrew Bolhagen 19. Modelling Cyclic Causal Structures Alexander Gebharter and Bert Leuridan Part IV: Causal Methods, Experimentation and Observation Under what circumstances is it (not) necessary to intervene experimentally? Or even to use non-experimental methods? 20. Physical vs Biomedical Sciences: Only the Latter Needs RCTs, but both Require Careful and Honest Methodology Carl Hoefer 21. Non-experimental Interventions in Political Science and International Relations Rosa Runhardt 22. Information Security, Intelligence Analysis, and Knowledge Generation without Experiments Jonathan M. Spring and Phyllis Illari How is technology advancing or hindering causal reasoning? Or allowing increased epistemic access to causal relations? 23. Causality Problems in Machine Learning Systems Alberto Termine and Giuseppe Primiero 24. Technology-driven Causal Inference: Prospects and Challenges Dingmar van Eck and Kristian González Barman 25. The Combination of Brain Stimulation and Brain Imaging Technologies in the Cognitive Neurosciences: Problematizing the “Convergence Hypothesis” Bas De Boer 26. Causal-manipulationist Approaches to Explaining Machine Learning Juan M. Durán Part V: Measurement and Data What kind of metrics or measurement methods do causal methods need? 27. Causation and Realism: The Role of Instrumentally Mediated Empirical Evidence Mahdi Khalili 28. Using Deep Neural Networks and Similarity Metrics to Predict and Control Brain Responses Bojana Grujičić and Phyllis Illari What is 'good quality' data for causal inference? 29. Between Quantity and Quality: Competing Views on the Role of Big Data for Causal Inference Stefano Canali and Emanuele Ratti 30. Process Tracing with Qualitative Data Julie Zahle Part VI: Causality, Knowledge, and Action What are the practices of causal explanation? 31. Moving Beyond Explanatory Monism Melinda Bonnie Fagan 32. Comparing Prediction and Explanation in Computational Models: Theoretical Neuroscience vs. Language Technology Marcin Miłkowski 33. Causal Mechanisms in the Social Sciences as Evidence for Higher-Order Causal Relations Erik Weber 34. When Does an Event Become a Cause? Narrative Structure and Causal Indeterminacy Paul A. Roth and John Beatty 35. Heterogeneous Causality: Levels of Causation and the WHOW Causal Logics in Qualitative Comparative Analysis Sofia Pagliarin Do we need full knowledge of a system in order to establish causes? What can be done with partial knowledge? 36. When Decisions Must be Based on Partial Causal Knowledge: Analyzing Causality and Evidence for Health Policy Fredrik Andersen, Rani Lill Anjum, and Elena Rocca 37. Going from Models to Action: Using Causal Knowledge for Everyday Choices Samantha Kleinberg How is causal evidence to be used in regulatory contexts? 38. Evidence, Causation, Guidelines and Regulation: The Public Health Experience of NICE in England Michael P. Kelly 39. Causal Evidence and the Social Determinants of Health: The Case of the Adverse Childhood Experiences Policies Virginia Ghiara 40. Causation, Regulation, and the Assessment of Adverse Events Following Immunization (AEFIs) Maria Laura Ilardo and Julian Reiss 41. Science to Policy Through Adverse Outcome Pathways Annamaria Carusi 42. Causal Knowledge and the Process of Policy Making: Towards a Bottom-up Approach Luis Mireles-Flores 43. From Evidence to Policy: Assessing Causal Claims in Nutrition Science Saana Jukola Part VII: Causal Theory Across Disciplinary Borders How to theorise causality outside the canon? 44. Causality and Interdisciplinarity in the Philosophy of Science in Practice: The Cases of Ecology and Environmental Conservation Luana Poliseli 45. What to Do When You Encounter Funky Causes in the (Historical) Wild Eric Schliesser Where should we pioneer causal theory outside philosophical canon? 46. Clinical Reasoning as a Problem-solving Cognitive Activity: The Role of Causal Claims Atocha Aliseda 47. Practical Causal Knowledge for Sustainability: Implications of Co-production for a Philosophical Understanding of Causality in Sustainability Science Guido Caniglia and Maja Schlüter 48. Causality and Complex Systems in the Geosciences Maarten G. Kleinhans How does causal theory make it into the classroom? 49. Causal Thinking in Science Education and the Challenges it Holds Michal Haskel-Ittah 50. Causal Reasoning About Education: What is it and What Should it Be? Arthur Bakker, Elisabeth Angerer, William R. Penuel, and Sanne F. Akkerman