Concrete Causation
By Roland Pöllinger
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Description
In his study of causation J. L. Mackie once referred back to David Hume, who listed causation among one of the principles that are TO US THE CEMENT OF THE UNIVERSE and thus OF VAST CONSEQUENCE IN THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN NATURE (David Hume, AN ABSTRACT OF A “TREATISE OF HUMAN NATURE”). Yet for example the early endeavours of the developers of the Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) framework, which aimed at embedding causal meaning into the formal treatment, seem to be neglected, and David Lewis' counterfactual analysis of causation based on his possible worlds semantics does not come very handy for application. As Judea Pearl summarises: WE ARE WITNESSING ONE OF THE MOST BIZARRE CIRCLES IN THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE: CAUSALITY IN SEARCH OF A LANGUAGE AND, SIMULTANEOUSLY, THE LANGUAGE OF CAUSALITY IN SEARCH OF ITS MEANING (Judea Pearl, CAUSALITY, 2000). Borrowing mathematical rigour from statistics, one of the most prominent areas of causal modelling today sounds out the interaction of probabilistic and deterministic approaches and is centred around Bayesian Networks, through which causal notions can be identified concretely and utilised for various disciplines eventually.
| Name | Description | Released | Price | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | VideoProbabilistic Causal Inference from Heterogeneous Evidence | Roland Poellinger (MCMP/LMU) gives a talk at the workshop on "Mechanisms in Medicine" (3-5 July, 2017) titled "Probabilistic Causal Inference from Heterogeneous Evidence" (based on joint work with Barbara Osimani and Jürgen Landes). Abstract: Current m | 3/13/2018 | Free | View in iTunes |
| 2 | VideoUnifying Causal and Non-Causal Knowledge | Michael Strevens (NYU) meets Roland Poellinger (MCMP/LMU) in a joint session on "Unifying Causal and Non-Causal Knowledge" at the MCMP workshop "Bridges 2014" (2 and 3 Sept, 2014, German House, New York City). The 2-day trans-continental meeting in math | 10/19/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
| 3 | VideoThe Mind-Brain Entanglement | Roland Poellinger (MCMP/LMU) gives a talk at the MCMP Colloquium (14 May, 2014) titled "The Mind-Brain Entanglement". Abstract: Listing "The Nonreductivist’s Troubles with Mental Causation" (1993) Jaegwon Kim suggested that the only remaining alternat | 5/24/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
| 4 | VideoDisentangling Nets for Causal Inference | As part of the MCMP group presentation at the DGPhil XXII Workshop on Mathematical Philosophy Roland Poellinger (Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy/LMU Munich) gives a mini presentation titled "Disentangling Nets for Causal Inference", in which h | 9/15/2011 | Free | View in iTunes |
| 5 | VideoComputing Non-Causal Knowledge for Causal Reasoning | Roland Poellinger (Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy/LMU Munich) gives a talk at the MCMP Workshop on Computational Metaphysics titled "Computing Non-Causal Knowledge for Causal Reasoning". Abstract: We use logical and mathematical knowledge to | 6/12/2011 | Free | View in iTunes |
| 6 | VideoA Ranking-theoretic Account of Causation | Professor Wolfgang Spohn (Konstanz) presents his ranking-theoretic account of causation as keynote speaker at the LMU workshop "Concrete Causation" (9 July, 2010). [Due to technical problems the recording begins with the second slide.] | 7/9/2010 | Free | View in iTunes |
| 7 | VideoCausality and Observational Equivalence of Deterministic and Indeterministic Descriptions | Charlotte Werndl (Oxford) presents her results on "Causality and Observational Equivalence of Deterministic and Indeterministic Descriptions" (workshoo "Concrete Causation", 9 July 2010). | 7/9/2010 | Free | View in iTunes |
| 8 | VideoThe Causal Chain Problem | In this talk at the LMU workshop "Concrete Causation" (9 July, 2010) Michael Baumgartner (Konstanz) discusses "The Causal Chain Problem" | 7/9/2010 | Free | View in iTunes |
| 9 | VideoCausation in Physics | In this talk Mathias Frisch (University of Maryland and Humboldt scholar at LMU Munich) critically examines a range of general arguments for the view that causal notions have an important place in the special sciences and discusses a case of causal mode | 7/9/2010 | Free | View in iTunes |
| 10 | VideoModelling Experimental Interventions: Results and Challenges | In this talk at the LMU workshop "Concrete Causation" (9 July, 2010) Jan-Willem Romeijn (Groningen) discusses probabilistic models of experimental intervention, and shows that such models elucidate the intuition that observations following intervention | 7/9/2010 | Free | View in iTunes |
| 11 | VideoGraphs as Models of Interventions | In this talk Roland Poellinger (Munich) gives an outline of Judea Pearl's deterministic approach towards causation (workshop "Concrete Causation", 9 July, 2010). The title of the talk is taken from the programmatic section 2.2 of Pearl's paper "Causal D | 7/9/2010 | Free | View in iTunes |
| 12 | VideoWelcome Address (Audio Excerpt) | Professor C. Ulises Moulines (LMU Munich, Seminar for Philosophy, Logic and Philosophy of Science) opens the LMU workshop "Concrete Causation" (9 July, 2010) with his Welcome Address to an audience of various disciplines; this is an audio excerpt - down | 7/9/2010 | Free | View in iTunes |
| 13 | VideoWorkshop Concrete Causation: Programme | The poster of the workshop "Concrete Causation" (9 July, 2010) with all speakers, times, chairs, and breaks | 7/9/2010 | Free | View in iTunes |
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