Causation: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives

26-29 May 2005
University of Konstanz
Konstanz, Germany

photos

Ancient

The Concept of Causality in Greek Thought
Jürgen Mittelstrass (Konstanz)
Commentator: Jim Lennox (Pittsburgh)

Moral causes: the role of explanation in ancient ethics
Brad Inwood (Toronto)
Commentator: Emidio Spinelli (Rome)

Medieval

Power, ‘Constant Conjunction’, and Explanation in Some Medieval Theories of Causality (will deal with mostly 13th and early 14th c Aristotelian materials— Aquinas, Scotus, Ockham, Bassolis, Franciscus Mayronis
Marylin Adams (Oxford)
Commentator: J.E. McGuire (Pittsburgh)

17th Century

From Scholastic to Mathematical Physics - and Back: Different Concepts of Causality in Descartes and Occasionalism
Robert Schnepf (Halle)
Commentator: Peter Machamer (Pittsburgh)

18th Century

Kant on Causal Laws
Eric Watkins (UCSD)
Commentator: Bernhard Thoele (Konstanz)

J.S. Mill on Causation in the Human and Natural Sciences
Laura Snyder (St. John’s)
Commentator: Paolo Parrini (Florence)

19th and 20th Centuries

Responsibility in History: Weber and Kries on causality
Michael Heidelberger (Tübingen)
Commentator: Henry Krips (Pittsburgh)

Plurality in Causation
Maria Carla Galavotti (Bologna)
Commentator: Christopher Hitchcock (CalTech)

Physics

Causality in Chaos Theory or Catastrophe Theory (Now Called Bifurcation Theory)
Jeremy Butterfield (Oxford):
Commentator: John Norton (Pittsburgh)

Biology/Neuroscience

Higher-level and Lower-level Causation
Lawrence Shapiro and Elliott Sober (Wisconsin)
Commentator: Peter McLaughlin (Heidelberg)

Mental Causation in Cognitive Neuroscience
Henrik Walter (Ulm)
Commentator: Wolfgang Spohn (Konstanz)

Social Science

Causal Explanations in the Social Sciences
Merrilee Salmon (Pittsburgh)
Commentator: Gottfried Seebass (Konstanz)

Public Lecture

Causality in Economics
C.W.J. Granger, UCSD, Nobel Laureate