Stability, Breadth and Guidance

Jan 1, 2018·
Thomas Blanchard
Thomas Blanchard
,
Nadya Vasilyeva
,
Tania Lombrozo
· 0 min read
Abstract
Much recent work on explanation in the interventionist tradition emphasizes the explanatory value of stable causal generalizations. We argue that two separate explanatory virtues are lumped together under the heading of ‘stability’. We call these two virtues breadth and guidance respectively.
Type
Publication
Philosophical Studies, 175(9), 2263-83
publication
Thomas Blanchard
Authors
Maître de Conférences en Philosophie

I am Associate Professor in the philosophy department at the Université Bordeaux Montaigne. Previously, I was a postdoctoral researcher in philosophy and psychology in the Concepts and Cognition Lab at UC-Berkeley for the Varieties of Understanding Project, an Assistant Professor at Illinois Wesleyan University, and an Akademischer Rat (roughly equivalent to assistant professor) at the University of Cologne. I received my Ph.D. from Rutgers University in 2014.

My research is in the philosophy of science, and focuses mainly on causation, causal modeling and causal explanation. I am interested in a wide variety of issues concerning causation including causal asymmetries, levels of causal explanation, the causal exclusion problem, the epistemology of causal inference, causal cognition, and causal decision theory. My work also investigates the use of certain causal concepts and assumptions in particular sciences such as biology, epidemiology and medicine.