Putting Things Together

Abstract

This chapter brings together the discussions of the previous chapters in order to develop a model of reductive explanation that clarifies the role of causal powers and causal influences, and identifies a number of metaphysical assumptions made by the method of reductive explanation. These assumptions are metaphysical in the sense that they bear on issues of traditional concern to metaphysicians. In so far as the model presented here is an accurate account of how reductive explanation works, the great success of the reductive approach will be evidence for the truth of these presuppositions, and so will give us an empirical handle on various metaphysical questions. The presuppositions unearthed in this chapter will inform the metaphysical picture that is developed in subsequent chapters.