Abstract
Any doctrine called “Top-Down Causation” immediately faces two expository challenges: specify exactly what is meant by “causation” and how to distinguish the “top” from the “bottom”. On certain ways of clarifying these terms the doctrine appears relatively benign and on others it appears to be in conflict with the usual understanding of physics. It is worthwhile just to get the rules of the game here clear.
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Notes
- 1.
Einstein quoted in Born (1971).
Reference
Born, M. (1971) The Born-Einstein Letters (translated by I. Born, pp. 170−171). Walker.
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Maudlin, T. (2022). Where is the Top and What Might Go Down?. In: Wuppuluri, S., Stewart, I. (eds) From Electrons to Elephants and Elections. The Frontiers Collection. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-92192-7_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-92192-7_9
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