Clark Glymour - Hans Reichenbach, The Direction of Time, Conjunctive Forks, The Principle of the Common Cause, and Maybe Some

Clark Glymour (Carnegie Mellon University)

The Center for Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh invites you to join us for our Lunch Time Talk. Attend in person at 1117 Cathedral of Learning or visit our live stream on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrRp47ZMXD7NXO3a9Gyh2sg.

LTT:  Clark Glymour

Tuesday, April 8th  @ 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm EST

Title: Hans Reichenbach, The Direction of Time, Conjunctive Forks, The Principle of the Common Cause, and Maybe Some More

Abstract: I will talk about Reichenbach’s posthumous book, The Direction of Time. My story is a little personal because the book changed my life, I think for the better. Focusing on his “macroscopic definition” of the direction of time, I will explain why that part of The Direction of Time is a brilliant disaster that attempted to formulate principles connecting probability with causality. I will describe some ways in which I think what he wrote has been widely misunderstood, including the distinction between “contexts of discovery” and “contexts of justification.” Most importantly, I will describe the tension he recognized–but his commentators have not–between “the Principle of the Common Cause” and “conjunctive forks,” and his rather desperate attempt to resolve that difficulty

Can’t make it in-person? This talk will be available online through the following:

Zoom – https://pitt.zoom.us/j/94045293838

YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrRp47ZMXD7NXO3a9Gyh2sg.