Theories of causation: mental causation, negative causation, and other challenges (July 6th-7th, 2017)
Theories of causation: mental causation, negative causation, and other challenges
Description: This workshop brings together representatives of different theories of causation to discuss challenges such as mental and negative causation. Some theories of causation (e.g., process theories) seem to render mental causation impossible, while several authors have recently argued that other theories (e.g., interventionist theories) allow or even support mental causation. Another challenge is negative causation: Some theories of causation seem to be unable to handle causal relevance of absences very well, while others—at least in principle—allow for negative causation. This workshop is intended to discuss whether the ability to account for mental and/or negative causation should be seen as a merit or a disadvantage of theories of causation and whether and to what extent theories of causation can be used for providing support for or against the claim that mental and/or negative causation exists. Other challenges for theories of causation (e.g., from biology, history, quantum mechanics, etc.) are also welcome.
Date: 6-7 July 2017
Place: Haus der Universitaet, room BSR 2, second floor
Organizer/s: Alexander Gebharter, David Hommen, Gerhard Schurz
Funding: The workshop is organized as part of the DFG (German Research Foundation) research group FOR 1063: Causation, Laws, Dispositions, and Explanation at the Interface of Science and Metaphysics. Attendance is free and open to all. If you plan to attend, please contact us at
Speakers:
- Randolph Clarke
- Markus Eronen
- Peter Fazekas
- Alexander Gebharter
- Vera Hoffmann-Kolss
- David Hommen
- Andreas Hüttemann
- Beate Krickel
- Stathis Psillos & Nikos Bisketzis
- Gerhard Schurz
Schedule
Day 1 - July 6
10:00 – 11:00 | Talk 1 | Gerhard Schurz: The Theory of Causal Bayes Nets and Its Empirical Content |
11:00 – 11:15 | Coffee break |
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11:15 – 12:15 | Talk 2 | Vera Hoffmann-Kolss: Three Kinds of Causal Indeterminacy |
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12:15 – 14:15 | Lunch break |
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14:15 – 15:15 | Talk 3 | Markus Eronen: Interventionism and the Challenge of Psychological Causation |
15:15 – 15:30 | Coffee break |
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15:30 – 16:30 | Talk 4 | Alexander Gebharter: Causal exclusion and causal Bayes nets |
16:30 – 16:45 | Coffee break |
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16:45 – 17:45 | Talk 5 | Beate Krickel: Rejecting Two Objections Against Interlevel Causation in Mechanisms: Part-Whole Causation and the Exclusion Argument |
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19:30 | Conference dinner | Address: Hausbrauerei "Zum Schlüssel" Bolkerstraße 41-47 40213 Düsseldorf-Altstadt
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Day 2 – July 7
10:00 – 11:00 | Talk 6 | Andreas Hüttemann: Process Theories and the Problem of Preemption |
11.00 – 11:15 | Coffee break |
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11:15 – 12:15 | Talk 7 | Peter Fazekas: A Dynamical Systems Approach to Causation |
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12:15 – 14:15 | Lunch break |
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14:15 – 15:15 | Talk 8 | David Hommen: Moore and Schaffer on the Ontology of Omissions |
15:15 – 15:30 | Coffee break |
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15:30 – 16:30 | Talk 9 | Randolph Clarke: Omissions, Causation, and Absence |
16:30 – 16:45 | Coffee break |
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16:45 – 17:45 | Talk 10 | Stathis Psillos & Nikos Bisketzis: Omissions, enablers and causation |