The lawless causes of covid-19: an uncontrolled experiment

This paper seeks to articulate a causal explanation of the covid-19 pandemic by bringing into dialogue two seemingly unrelated works: Leyes sin causa y causas sin ley en la explicación biológica, by philosopher of biology Gustavo Caponi, and the essay “Another Silent Spring”, by environmental historian Donald Worster. Caponi, whose book was written well before the pandemic, offers epistemological tools that underscore the relevance of both proximate and remote causes in biological explanation, emphasizing experimental intervention as a valid form of causal understanding, even in the absence of universal laws. This framework allows us to interpret public health measures enacted during the pandemic as epistemically meaningful actions. Worster, in turn, attributes the origins of the pandemic to humanity’s long-standing efforts to dominate nature and treat its living and nonliving components as mere “natural resources.” While Caponi’s model helps us conceptualize intervention as explanation, this paper argues, following Worster, that these very impulses have produced what may be termed a paradox of control: the more we attempt to master natural systems, the more we generate ecological instability and systemic risk. The result is a global-scale, unintended experiment with potentially catastrophic consequences.