Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/2123/1072

Title: Two bits of Nous from 1979
Other Titles: The Difference Between Buses and Trams
Authors: Ismael, Jenann
Price, Huw
Keywords: Time
Causation
Interventionist causation
Epistemic degeneracy
Issue Date: 19-Jul-2006
Publisher: Centre for Time, Department of Philosophy, University of Sydney
Series/Report no.: Origins III :: Intervention, Time and Physics
Abstract: Tram drivers know where their vehicles are bound, and don't have to decide to take them there, rather than somewhere else; the tramlines take care of it. Bus drivers know where their vehicles are headed, too, but without the benefit of the rails. In this talk we explain how this difference offers both bad news and good for bus drivers. It make them less noble, less god-like creatures than their tram-driving cousins, for their epistemic perspective is necessarily degenerate in comparison; but degeneracy sets them free. We propose that this discursion on public transport throws important new light on the foundations of interventionist causation: roughly, it suggests that the causal perspective is an inevitable by-product of an epistemic degeneracy.
Description: Contains one audio recording (mp3) and one set of presentation notes
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2123/1072
Appears in Collections:Conference presentations, workshops and meetings

Files in This Item:

File Description SizeFormat
Talk_1_1.mp342.75 MBMPEG AudioView/Open
IsmaelPrice.pdf4.75 MBAdobe PDFView/Open

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