Angela Potochnik - Causes Don’t Push

Angela Potochnik (University of Cincinnati)

The Center for Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh invites you to join us for our 66th Annual Lecture Series Talk. Attend in person in room 1008 in the Cathedral of Learning (10th Floor)  or visit our live stream on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrRp47ZMXD7NXO3a9Gyh2sg.

The Annual Lecture Series, the Center’s oldest program, was established in 1960, the year when Adolf Grünbaum founded the Center. Each year the series consists of six to eight lectures, about three quarters of which are given by philosophers, historians, and scientists from other universities.

ALS – Angela Potochnik 

Friday, October 10 @ 3:30 pm - 5:30pm EDT

1008 Cathedral of Learning 

Title:  Causes Don’t Push

Abstract:  Complex systems research has shown that many systems of different types and at different scales exhibit similar features. These include robust behavioral regularities that can be described without referencing system specifics, variability in how systems accomplish these regularities, and interdependence among system elements. In this talk, I will explore implications of these developments for our very concept of causation. Specifically, I will conjecture that the model of causation as isolated direct influence, like billiard balls, is deeply misleading. The association of causation with pushing, inherited from the mechanistic philosophy that reined in Newton’s day, is reinforced by contemporary science’s experimental practices and causal modeling techniques. Yet, consideration of the uses and limitations of these contemporary techniques supports a different conception of causation, what we might think of as a causal mesh. The persistence of the conception of causation as pushing obscures the expansiveness of causal relevance and, as a result, is virtually inapplicable to the complex systems that comprise our world.

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

 Zoom:  TBA

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

A reception with light refreshments will follow in The Center on the 11th floor from 5-6pm.