logic.rforge

Speakers (Click on the post-it icon to access further information):

• 9.00: C. Ulises Moulines (Munich)
  Welcome Address; download as PDF
• 9.15: Roland Poellinger (Munich)
  Graphs as Models of Interventions
  Chair: C. Ulises Moulines
• 10.05: Jan-Willem Romeijn (Groningen)
  Modelling Experimental Interventions: Results and Challenges
  Chair: Roland Poellinger
• 11.25: Mathias Frisch (University of Maryland)
  Causation in Physics
  Chair: Roland Poellinger
• 13.20: Michael Baumgartner (Konstanz)
  The Causal Chain Problem
  Chair: Godehard Link
• 14.40: Charlotte Werndl (Oxford)
  Causality and Observational Equivalence of Deterministic and Indeterministic Descriptions
  Chair: Godehard Link
• 16.00: Wolfgang Spohn (Konstanz)
  A Ranking-theoretic Account of Deterministic Causation
  with final discussion
  Chair: Godehard Link

Motivation:

In his study of causation J. L. Mackie once referred back to David Hume, who listed causation among one of the principles that are TO US THE CEMENT OF THE UNIVERSE and thus OF VAST CONSEQUENCE IN THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN NATURE (David Hume, AN ABSTRACT OF A “TREATISE OF HUMAN NATURE”). Yet for example the early endeavours of the developers of the Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) framework, which aimed at embedding causal meaning into the formal treatment, seem to be neglected, and David Lewis' counterfactual analysis of causation based on his possible worlds semantics does not come very handy for application. As Judea Pearl summarises: WE ARE WITNESSING ONE OF THE MOST BIZARRE CIRCLES IN THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE: CAUSALITY IN SEARCH OF A LANGUAGE AND, SIMULTANEOUSLY, THE LANGUAGE OF CAUSALITY IN SEARCH OF ITS MEANING (Judea Pearl, CAUSALITY, 2000). Borrowing mathematical rigour from statistics, one of the most prominent areas of causal modelling today sounds out the interaction of probabilistic and deterministic approaches and is centred around Bayesian Networks, through which causal notions can be identified concretely and utilized for various disciplines eventually.

Info for LMU Students: Winter Semester 2010/11

The workshop "Concrete Causation" will be followed by a Proseminar "Modeling Causal Relations" (in English language) in the winter semester 2010/11. For more information about enrollment and the topics of the course click here.

Video Recordings (channel to be updated successively)

The recordings made at the workshop will be made available successively. Click on the left icon to access the videos on iTunes U, or click below to open the files in various other formats (LMUcast Flash Player with speaker/screen split "Fl", Quicktime, and IPod format).

Programme/Poster Download:

• Workshop Poster [PDF, ~2MB]
• Workshop Programme only (version for printing) [PDF, ~350KB]

Location Map:

[Show Workshop "Concrete Causation" on a larger map]

	LMU Munich, Main Building		Seminar for Philosophy, Logic and Philosophy of Science		Conference Room, M210 (MKE), Main Building		Conference Hotel (Lettl)
	Dinner Venue		Munich Central Station		City Center: Marienplatz (Trains U3, U6, and S-Bahn)

Finding your Way around:

• Floorplan LMU, 3rd floor with workshop venue (PDF)
• Public Transportation Map (searchable PDF)
• Interactive Journey Planner

Sponsored by

• Fakultät für Philosophie, Wissenschaftstheorie und Religionswissenschaft
• Münchner Universitätsgesellschaft

Kindly supported by

Graphic Design by

rforge Multi Media
Photo: © Tommy Leong – Fotolia.com