Following philosophical interest in token (also called singular) causation, many fields have examined how we can and should explain these specific events. Computer science has investigated whether this can be automated, psychology has examined how people determine what caused an event, and these judgments are made every day in legal settings. Yet there is still disagreement about what a token cause is and what makes for a good explanation.
These ideas have influenced thinking in many disciplines, and this conference aims to bring together researchers from multiple disciplines, working on diverse questions of token causality and causal explanation. We offer some suggested topics of interest but encourage submission of abstracts on all related topics:
What are token causes, and are they distinct from type-level causes?
Should we seek one unifying theory of token causality, or is there potentially a toolbox of approaches that may apply to different areas?
How should we think about evidence for token causality? Are there differences across domains and purposes?
How can we formalize counterfactuals? How can we determine the "Right" comparisons? For example, what background should be held fixed, what should vary, and how?
Are there methods for causal explanation that are better suited to some domains (e.g., medicine, law)?
Can we learn from how people reason about token causes and explanation?
How do factors such as timing and strength factor into judgments about token causes?
Computational methods for causal explanation and the tradeoff between provably correct methods (with strong assumptions) and methods aligned with human intuition and reasoning
How do token causality and explanation relate to blame and moral responsibility?
Abstracts should be no more than 300 words, submitted via Microsoft CMT.
The Microsoft CMT service was used for managing the peer-reviewing process for this conference. This service was provided for free by Microsoft and they bore all expenses, including costs for Azure cloud services as well as for software development and support.
Submission deadline February 8, 2027
Notification March 15, 2027
Conference May 19-21, 2027