Downward Causation
Downward Causation

Author: Peter Bøgh Andersen

Publisher:

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 366

ISBN-13:

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Downward causation is found in two-level and multi-level systems with complex behaviour generated by many components interacting in a simple or complex way. The term was coined by the social psychologist and philosopher Donald T. Campbell, who asked the question: If many small-scale interactions can create emergent large-scale patterns, can large-scale patterns re-influence the small-scale interactions that generated them? This has led to many further questions, among them: Does the cell as a system reorganise the biochemical processes inside it in a new way? Do psychosomatic illnesses exist? Can life change biochemical laws? Can mind change the body? The chapters in this comprehensive book address these questions from the viewpoints of different disciplines. Part 1 contains a classification of positions regarding 'downward causation', Part 2 covers physics, Part 3 covers biology and psychology, Part 4 covers social and communicative systems, and Part 5 covers general philosophy.

Philosophical and Scientific Perspectives on Downward Causation
Philosophical and Scientific Perspectives on Downward Causation

Author: Michele Paolini Paoletti

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2017-02-17

Total Pages: 334

ISBN-13: 1317271440

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Downward causation plays a fundamental role in many theories of metaphysics and philosophy of mind. It is strictly connected with many topics in philosophy, including but not limited to: emergence, mental causation, the nature of causation, the nature of causal powers and dispositions, laws of nature, and the possibility of ontological and epistemic reductions. Philosophical and Scientific Perspectives on Downward Causation brings together experts from different fields—including William Bechtel, Stewart Clark and Tom Lancaster, Carl Gillett, John Heil, Robin F. Hendry, Max Kistler, Stephen Mumford and Rani Lill Anjum —who delve into classic and unexplored lines of philosophical inquiry related to downward causation. It critically assesses the possibility of downward causation given different ontological assumptions and explores the connection between downward causation and the metaphysics of causation and dispositions. Finally, it presents different cases of downward causation in empirical fields such as physics, chemistry, biology and the neurosciences. This volume is both a useful introduction and a collection of original contributions on this fascinating and hotly debated philosophical topic.

Downward Causation and the Neurobiology of Free Will
Downward Causation and the Neurobiology of Free Will

Author: Nancey Murphy

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2009-09-30

Total Pages: 286

ISBN-13: 3642032052

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How is free will possible in the light of the physical and chemical underpinnings of brain activity and recent neurobiological experiments? How can the emergence of complexity in hierarchical systems such as the brain, based at the lower levels in physical interactions, lead to something like genuine free will? The nature of our understanding of free will in the light of present-day neuroscience is becoming increasingly important because of remarkable discoveries on the topic being made by neuroscientists at the present time, on the one hand, and its crucial importance for the way we view ourselves as human beings, on the other. A key tool in understanding how free will may arise in this context is the idea of downward causation in complex systems, happening coterminously with bottom up causation, to form an integral whole. Top-down causation is usually neglected, and is therefore emphasized in the other part of the book’s title. The concept is explored in depth, as are the ethical and legal implications of our understanding of free will. This book arises out of a workshop held in California in April of 2007, which was chaired by Dr. Christof Koch. It was unusual in terms of the breadth of people involved: they included physicists, neuroscientists, psychiatrists, philosophers, and theologians. This enabled the meeting, and hence the resulting book, to attain a rather broader perspective on the issue than is often attained at academic symposia. The book includes contributions by Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, George F. R. Ellis , Christopher D. Frith, Mark Hallett, David Hodgson, Owen D. Jones, Alicia Juarrero, J. A. Scott Kelso, Christof Koch, Hans Küng, Hakwan C. Lau, Dean Mobbs, Nancey Murphy, William Newsome, Timothy O’Connor, Sean A.. Spence, and Evan Thompson.

Top-Down Causation and Emergence
Top-Down Causation and Emergence

Author: Jan Voosholz

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2021-08-06

Total Pages: 412

ISBN-13: 3030718999

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This book presents the latest research, conducted by leading philosophers and scientists from various fields, on the topic of top-down causation. The chapters combine to form a unique, interdisciplinary perspective, drawing upon George Ellis's extensive research and novel perspectives on topics including downwards causation, weak and strong emergence, mental causation, biological relativity, effective field theory and levels in nature. The collection also serves as a Festschrift in honour of George Ellis' 80th birthday. The extensive and interdisciplinary scope of this book makes it vital reading for anyone interested in the work of George Ellis and current research on the topics of causation and emergence.

Emergence
Emergence

Author: Mariusz Tabaczek

Publisher: University of Notre Dame Pess

Published: 2019-07-25

Total Pages: 531

ISBN-13: 0268105006

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Over the last several decades, the theories of emergence and downward causation have become arguably the most popular conceptual tools in scientific and philosophical attempts to explain the nature and character of global organization observed in various biological phenomena, from individual cell organization to ecological systems. The theory of emergence acknowledges the reality of layered strata or levels of systems, which are consequences of the appearance of an interacting range of novel qualities. A closer analysis of emergentism, however, reveals a number of philosophical problems facing this theory. In Emergence, Mariusz Tabaczek offers a thorough analysis of these problems and a constructive proposal of a new metaphysical foundation for both the classic downward causation-based and the new dynamical depth accounts of emergence theory, developed by Terrence Deacon. Tabaczek suggests ways in which both theoretical models of emergentism can be grounded in the classical and the new (dispositionalist) versions of Aristotelianism. This book will have an eager audience in metaphysicians working both in the analytic and the Thomistic traditions, as well as philosophers of science and biology interested in emergence theory and causation.

The Neural Basis of Free Will
The Neural Basis of Free Will

Author: Peter Tse

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 473

ISBN-13: 0262019108

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The issues of mental causation, consciousness, and free will have vexed philosophers since Plato. This book examines these unresolved issues from a neuroscientific perspective. In contrast with philosophers who use logic rather than data to argue whether mental causation or consciousness can exist given unproven first assumptions, Tse proposes that we instead listen to what neurons have to say. Because the brain must already embody a solution to the mind--body problem, why not focus on how the brain actually realizes mental causation? Tse draws on exciting recent neuroscientific data concerning how informational causation is realized in physical causation at the level of NMDA receptors, synapses, dendrites, neurons, and neuronal circuits. He argues that a particular kind of strong free will and downward mental causation are realized in rapid synaptic plasticity. Recent neurophysiological breakthroughs reveal that neurons function as criterial assessors of their inputs, which then change the criteria that will make other neurons fire in the future. Such informational causation cannot change the physical basis of information realized in the present, but it can change the physical basis of information that may be realized in the immediate future. This gets around the standard argument against free will centered on the impossibility of self-causation. Tse explores the ways that mental causation and qualia might be realized in this kind of neuronal and associated information-processing architecture, and considers the psychological and philosophical implications of having such an architecture realized in our brains.

Studies in the Philosophy of Biology
Studies in the Philosophy of Biology

Author: Francisco José Ayala

Publisher: MacMillan

Published: 1974

Total Pages: 390

ISBN-13: 9780333148600

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Proceedings of the conference on Problems of reduction in biology held at the Study and Conference Center of the Rockefeller Foundation in Bellagio, Italy, from 9 to 16 September 1972.

How Can Physics Underlie the Mind?
How Can Physics Underlie the Mind?

Author: George Ellis

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2016-05-31

Total Pages: 502

ISBN-13: 366249809X

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Physics underlies all complexity, including our own existence: how is this possible? How can our own lives emerge from interactions of electrons, protons, and neutrons? This book considers the interaction of physical and non-physical causation in complex systems such as living beings, and in particular in the human brain, relating this to the emergence of higher levels of complexity with real causal powers. In particular it explores the idea of top-down causation, which is the key effect allowing the emergence of true complexity and also enables the causal efficacy of non-physical entities, including the value of money, social conventions, and ethical choices.

Brains Top Down
Brains Top Down

Author: Gennaro Auletta

Publisher: World Scientific

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 376

ISBN-13: 9814412465

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This book presents an overview of some of the main schools of thought as well as current research trends in neuroscience. It focuses on neural top-down causation applied to hot topics like consciousness, emotions, the self and the will, action and behavior, neural networks, brains and society.

Downward Causation and the Neurobiology of Free Will
Downward Causation and the Neurobiology of Free Will

Author: Nancey Murphy

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2009-09-23

Total Pages: 286

ISBN-13: 3642032044

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How is free will possible in the light of the physical and chemical underpinnings of brain activity and recent neurobiological experiments? How can the emergence of complexity in hierarchical systems such as the brain, based at the lower levels in physical interactions, lead to something like genuine free will? The nature of our understanding of free will in the light of present-day neuroscience is becoming increasingly important because of remarkable discoveries on the topic being made by neuroscientists at the present time, on the one hand, and its crucial importance for the way we view ourselves as human beings, on the other. A key tool in understanding how free will may arise in this context is the idea of downward causation in complex systems, happening coterminously with bottom up causation, to form an integral whole. Top-down causation is usually neglected, and is therefore emphasized in the other part of the book’s title. The concept is explored in depth, as are the ethical and legal implications of our understanding of free will. This book arises out of a workshop held in California in April of 2007, which was chaired by Dr. Christof Koch. It was unusual in terms of the breadth of people involved: they included physicists, neuroscientists, psychiatrists, philosophers, and theologians. This enabled the meeting, and hence the resulting book, to attain a rather broader perspective on the issue than is often attained at academic symposia. The book includes contributions by Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, George F. R. Ellis , Christopher D. Frith, Mark Hallett, David Hodgson, Owen D. Jones, Alicia Juarrero, J. A. Scott Kelso, Christof Koch, Hans Küng, Hakwan C. Lau, Dean Mobbs, Nancey Murphy, William Newsome, Timothy O’Connor, Sean A.. Spence, and Evan Thompson.