Causal Social Construction

Journal of Social Ontology

article

Riin Kõiv¹ 

[1] University of Tartu, Institute of Philosophy and Semiotics, Department of Philosophy

关键词: Contrastive causation;    Social construction;    Social causation;    Causal social construction;    Social ontology;   

DOI  :  10.1515/jso-2019-0006

来源: De Gruyter

【 摘 要 】

In the social constructionist literature, little has been said about what it means for social factors to cause X in such a way that X would count as causally socially constructed. In this paper, I argue that being caused by social factors – and thus being causally socially constructed – is best defined in terms of a contrastive counterfactual notion of causation. Unlike some plausible alternatives, this definition captures what is at stake in actual social constructionist debates. It makes transparent which factors the truth of a causal constructionist claim may depend on. By doing so, it sheds light on what the disagreements over whether X is causally socially constructed may turn on. It also helps us to see under which condition the claim that X is socially causally constructed is compatible with the claim that X is caused by biological factors.

【 授权许可】

CC BY-NC-ND