James Woodward (2003), Making Things Happen: A Theory of Causal Explanation, Oxford University Press — DOI-10.1093/0195155270.001.0001
Key takeaways
Registered, not read. What the record holds of its account of intervention comes from Woodward’s Stanford Encyclopedia entry (LIT-713), which states conditions M1–M4 and cites this book as the source of its own account. What it holds of invariance comes only from the publisher’s chapter abstract: a generalization is invariant if it is stable in the right way under interventions, and laws are one kind of invariant relationship but not the only kind. Chapter 6, “Invariance” (pp. 239–314), is the argument the essay’s §5.3 would need before claiming anything about higher-level or organizational causes.
Standing in the record
Filed on 2026-10-05 at the owner’s request. The account is THEORY-138, sourced from the entry.