Browsing Research Publications and Outputs by subject "Causation"
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Causal Asymmetry and Culpability
Published 2006-07-20In developing an adequate explanation for causal asymmetry it is important to distinguish two importantly different applications of the concept of causation. One role for causation is in prediction. Knowledge of causal ...Open AccessRecording, oral -
Causation and Reductive Explanation
Published 2006-07-20One of the most powerful tools in science is the method of reductive explanation, where we explain the behaviour of a complex system in terms of the behaviour of the parts from which it is composed. In order to employ this ...Open AccessPresentation -
Elusive Causation
Published 2006-07-19David Lewis claimed that knowledge is elusive. "That is how knowledge is elusive. Examine it, and straightway it vanishes..." He argued that epistemology robs us of our knowledge: "Maybe epistemology is the culprit. Maybe ...Open AccessPresentation -
Entropy, Interventions and Causation
Published 2006-07-20Possible connections between thermodynamics and the causal asymmetryOpen AccessPresentation -
Two bits of Nous from 1979
Published 2006-07-19Tram 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 ...Open AccessPresentation -
Two Varieties of Causal Anti-Realism
Published 2006-07-19Agency theories of causation have often been criticised for not being sufficiently realist about causation. In my view recent agency theories have not been dialectically effective in addressing this charge. On the one hand ...Open AccessPresentation