The chances of higher-level causation: an investigation into causal exclusion arguments

It is well-known that non-reductive physicalism suffers from internal tensions between physicalist and antireductionist commitments. This thesis reconstructs Jaegwon Kim’s classic causal exclusion arguments that aim to demonstrate the tension between the putative causal autonomy of multiply realized higher-level properties and basic commitments of physicalism and investigates some solutions that aim to dissolve the paradox highlighted by exclusion worries. The main goal of this thesis is to appraise a solution, developed by Menzies and List, according to which, while the causation of an effect via a higher-level realized property is possible, it is incompatible with the causation of the same effect by a distinct realizing property. On this incompatibilist view causal exclusion is a contingent matter and can be directed both downwards and upwards, but it presupposes a difference-making account of causation. On the one hand, the thesis provides justification for preferring a difference-making account of causation over productive accounts presupposed by Kim’s exclusion argument, on the other hand, it develops internal criticism against the approach suggested by Menzies and List. Two strands of original arguments are formulated against this view. First, it is shown that downwards exclusion claims rest on the tacit assumption that realization and multiple realization can be modeled on the determinable-determinate relation, a premise explicitly rejected by Menzies. Independent arguments are also developed against this premise. It is shown that if the premise is unavailable Menzies has no viable argument for the claim that lower-level realizer properties cannot be proper causes of an outcome when it is also caused by the relevant realized property. Second, it is argued that higher-level causal autonomy is much less likely to occur than Menzies and List claimed it to be and inter-level causal compatibility is a lively option in the incompatibilist framework they developed

Communities and beyond: mesoscopic analysis of a large social network with complementary methods

Community detection methods have so far been tested mostly on small empirical networks and on synthetic benchmarks. Much less is known about their performance on large real-world networks, which nonetheless are a significant target for application. We analyze the performance of three state-of-the-art community detection methods by using them to identify communities in a large social network constructed from mobile phone call records. We find that all methods detect communities that are meaningful in some respects but fall short in others, and that there often is a hierarchical relationship between communities detected by different methods. Our results suggest that community detection methods could be useful in studying the general mesoscale structure of networks, as opposed to only trying to identify dense structures.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figures. V2: typos corrected, one sentence added. V3: revised version, Appendix added. V4: final published versio

Are higher mechanistic levels causally autonomous?

This paper provides a detailed analysis and explores the prospects of the arguments for higher-level causal autonomy available for the proponents of the mechanistic framework. Three different arguments (a context- based, an organisation-based, and a constraint-based) are distinguished. After clarifying previously raised worries with regard to the first two arguments, the paper focuses on the newest version of the third argument that has recently been revived by William Bechtel. By using Bechtel’s own case study, it is shown that not even reference to constraints can establish the causal autonomy of higher mechanistic levels

A dynamical systems approach to causation

Our approach aims at accounting for causal claims in terms of how the physical states of the underlying dynamical system evolve with time. Causal claims assert connections between two sets of physicals states - their truth depends on whether the two sets in question are genuinely connected by time evolution such that physical states from one set evolve with time into the states of the other set. We demonstrate the virtues of our approach by showing how it is able to account for typical causes, causally relevant factors, being ‘the’ cause, and cases of overdetermination and causation by absences

The generality of the GUGA MRCI approach in COLUMBUS for treating complex quantum chemistry

The core part of the program system COLUMBUS allows highly efficient calculations using variational multireference (MR) methods in the framework of configuration interaction with single and double excitations (MR-CISD) and averaged quadratic coupled-cluster calculations (MR-AQCC), based on uncontracted sets of configurations and the graphical unitary group approach (GUGA). The availability of analytic MR-CISD and MR-AQCC energy gradients and analytic nonadiabatic couplings for MR-CISD enables exciting applications including, e.g., investigations of π-conjugated biradicaloid compounds, calculations of multitudes of excited states, development of diabatization procedures, and furnishing the electronic structure information for on-the-fly surface nonadiabatic dynamics. With fully variational uncontracted spin-orbit MRCI, COLUMBUS provides a unique possibility of performing high-level calculations on compounds containing heavy atoms up to lanthanides and actinides. Crucial for carrying out all of these calculations effectively is the availability of an efficient parallel code for the CI step. Configuration spaces of several billion in size now can be treated quite routinely on standard parallel computer clusters. Emerging developments in COLUMBUS, including the all configuration mean energy multiconfiguration self-consistent field method and the graphically contracted function method, promise to allow practically unlimited configuration space dimensions. Spin density based on the GUGA approach, analytic spin-orbit energy gradients, possibilities for local electron correlation MR calculations, development of general interfaces for nonadiabatic dynamics, and MRCI linear vibronic coupling models conclude this overview

Gas Ion Source Performance of the EnvironMICADAS at HEKAL Laboratory, Debrecen, Hungary

A coupled accelerator mass spectrometer–gas interface system has been successfully operating at the Hertelendi Laboratory of Environmental Studies, Debrecen, Hungary, since 2013. Over the last 6 years more than 500 gas targets were measured below 100 µg carbon content for carbon isotopic composition. The system was tested with blanks, OxII, IAEA-C1, IAEA-C2, and IAEA-C7 standards. The performance of our instrumentation shows good agreement with other published gas-interface system data and also shows a quite good agreement with the nominal value of international standard samples. There is a measurable but quite small memory effect after modern samples, but this does not significantly affect the final results. Typical ion currents at the low energy side were between 10–15 µA with a 5% CO2 in He mixing ratio. The relative errors average ±6% for samples greater than or equal to 10 µgC sample with mean count rates of 300 counts per microgram C for OxII. The blank is comparable with other systems, which is 0.0050 ± 0.0018 F14C or 34,000–47,000 yr BP, which allows for the routine measurement of both of small environmental and archeological samples