Argument
Overdetermination
Overview
Overdetermination occurs when a single observed effect is determined by multiple causes, any one of which alone would be conceivably sufficient to account for ("determine") the effect. The term "overdetermination" (German: Überdeterminierung) was used by Sigmund Freud as a key concept in his psychoanalysis, and later by Louis Althusser.
In the philosophy of science, the concept of overdetermination has been used to describe a situation in which there are more causes present than are necessary to instantiate an effect. Overdetermination here is in contrast to underdetermination, when the number or strength of causes is insufficient.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
As to the ulterior question, whether it is strictly necessary that the cause, or assemblage of conditions, should precede, by ever so short an instant, the production of the effect, (a question raised and argued with much ingenuity by Sir John Herschel in an Essay already quoted,[20]) the inquiry is of no consequence for our present purpose. There certainly are cases in which the effect follows without any interval…
John Stuart Mill, A System of Logic
Close in meaning to Overdetermination; the term itself is not named.
With the disappearance of the motive the inability to find the mislaid object also came to an end. I could multiply this collection of examples indefinitely; but I will not do so now. In my _Psycho-pathology of Everyday Life_ (first published in 1901) you will find plenty of examples for the study of errors.[22] All these examples demonstrate the same thing over and over again; they make it probable to you that…
Sigmund Freud, Introductory lectures on psycho-analysis
Close in meaning to Overdetermination; the term itself is not named.
When, from the observation of a number of individual instances, we ascend to a general proposition, or when, by combining a number of general propositions, we conclude from them another proposition still more general, the process, which is substantially the same in both instances, is called Induction. When from a general proposition, not alone (for from a single proposition nothing can be concluded which is not…
John Stuart Mill, A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive
States what Overdetermination is.
Philosophers who discussed Overdetermination
Related ideas
- Classical Greece
- Analytic philosophy
- Underdetermination
- Mao Zedong
- Psychoanalysis
- Rhetoric
- Sigmund Freud
- Philosophy of science
- Marxist philosophy
- Free will
- Literary criticism
- The Interpretation of Dreams
- Ambiguity
- Philosophy of language
- Philosophy of mind
- Louis Althusser
- Reading Capital
Place in the tradition
Part of Mind–body dualism.