CFP: Causes, Norms, and Decisions

Formal causal models and interventionist approaches have been applied to a wide range of problems in the philosophy of causation. In this workshop we want to explore two of these topics in particular.

The first topic is the role of prescriptive and descriptive norms in accounts of causation. Do we need to incorporate normality considerations into causal models in order to arrive at a descriptively adequate notion of causation? Or is it possible (and desirable) to arrive at a norm-free notion of causation? What is the relation of causation to other more obviously norm-laden concepts such as blame and responsibility?

The second topic is the relation between causality and rational decision. Can applying formal causal models and interventionist accounts of causation shed light on the debate between causal and evidential decision theories? Should (causal) decision theory explicitly incorporate the formalism of interventionist causal models? If yes, in which way? How well do evidentialist accounts of rational decision-making fit with interventionist accounts of causation?

We invite contributions that deal with these problems and related questions.

How to submit an abstract

Philosophers and researchers from other areas with an interest in causation and decision theory, including PhD candidates and early career researchers, are encouraged to submit an abstract of up to 500 words.

Abstracts should be sent in anonymized form to permit blinded review. Please state your name, institutional affiliation and title of the abstract in the body of your email.

The deadline for the submission of abstracts is 1 May 2018.

Please send abstracts to [email protected]

Financial Support

We applied for funding and we hope to be able to cover travel costs for speakers.

Organisation and Contact

The workshop is organized by Enno Fischer, Mathias Frisch and Sebastian Krug, Institute of Philosophy, Leibniz Universität Hannover.

For any questions please contact Enno Fischer: [email protected]