Where is there causation?

Two seemingly conflicting lines of thought have been influential in the recent debates in philosophy of causation. On the one hand, it has been argued that causation can only take place at the physical level because all goings on in the world are ultimately determined by physics and physics itself is ‘causally closed’. The second line of thought argues that causal notions cannot play a role in physics, because the fundamental laws of physics are radically different from causal laws. Causal laws typically describe how local events determine events in their future; for example, a causal law can connect smoking to later occurrences of cancer. By contrast, physical laws connect the entirety of physical reality in a time-symmetric manner: the entire state of the universe at a certain time equally determines the relative past and the future of the universe. It therefore appears reasonable to situate causation in the higher levels of science where local events are studied in a time-directed manner, such as biology and economy. The workshop aim to assess these lines of argument and clarify their relations to one another. 

All are welcome, but registration is required.

In case of questions or confusion, contact [email protected]

Abstracts and Schedule can be found in the following folder:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/46fe221dzcwwj9f/AADXKNUvGoMHl-FuIAe0i_C2a?dl=0

Earlier the same week, Jenann Ismael will be delivering our annual Burman Lectures:

http://www.idesam.umu.se/om/amnen/filosofi/presentation/burmanlectures/