The Legitimacy of Causation in the Sciences

General Note: Everything on syllabus is subject to change. The official readings for each class will be determined by Tuesday Evening at 20:00 the week before the relevant class.

Click HERE for additional topics not covered in class (but acceptable for the term paper)


Introduction: Causal Skepticism

[1]

14 Oct

Bertrand Russell, “On the Concept of Cause”


supplemental:

Hitchcock: “What Russell Got Right”


[2]

21 Oct

Hartry Field, “Causation in a physical world” (p. 1-16)

Blanchard: “Physics and Causation”

Norton, “Causation as a Folk Science” (pages 1-12 and 18-22 of PDF = 11-22 and 28-32 of book)


Supplemental:

Ross and Spurrett, "Notions of Cause: Russell’s Thesis Revisited”


THEORIES OF CAUSATION

[3]

28 Oct

Ned Hall, “Philosophy of Causation: Blind Alleys Exposed, promising directions highlighted” (9 Pages)

David Lewis, “Causation" (13 pages)

Julian Reiss, "Contextualizing Causation, Part 1" (10 pages)

Julian Reiss, "Contextualizing Causation, Part 2" (15 pages)


Supplemental

David Lewis "Counterfactual Dependence and Time's Arrow"

Hartry Field, “Causation in a physical world” (p. 16-30)

Adam Elga, "Statistical Mechanics and the Asymmmetry of Counterfactual Dependence"

Laurie Paul, "Problems with Late Preemption"

John McDermott "Redundant Causation"


Further Reading:

Paul and Hall: Causation: A User’s Guide


[4]

4 Nov

Chris Hitchcock: “Salmon on Explanatory Relevance”


Supplemental:

Chris Hitchcock: "Causal Processes and Interactions: What are they, and what are they good for?"

Ned Hall: "Two Concepts of Cause"

Wesley Salmon: "Causality and Explanation: A Reply and Two Critiques"

Dan Hausman: "Transfer Theories" (from Causal Asymmetries)


For Reference:

Phil Dowe, “Causal Processes”

Jim Woodward: "SEP: Scientific Explanation"


Further Reading:

Erik Curiel: "The Constraints General Relativity Places on Physicalist Accounts of Causality"


CAUSAL FOUNDATIONALISM

[5]

11 Nov

Alyssa Ney: “Physical Causation and Difference Making”


Supplemental:

Farr and Reutlinger: “A Relic of a Bygone Age?: The Symmetry and the Directionality Argument”

Tim Maudlin: "Causation, Counterfactuals, and the Third Factor"

Carolina Sartorio: "Causes as Difference Makers"


Causal Models

[6]

18 Nov

Jim Woodward: “Causation with a Human Face”


Supplemental:

Jim Woodward: Making Things Happen, chapter 1

Jim Woodward: "Comparison with Lewis's theory" (from MTH)

Nancy Cartwright: “Causal Laws and Effective Strategies”

Peter Spirtes and Richard Scheines: "Causal Inference of Ambiguous Manipulations"


For Reference:

Jim Woodward: "Causation and Manipulability"


[7]

25 Nov

Chris Hitchcock: “Causal Modeling" (Sections 1, 2, 3, 4.1 and 4.2)

Michael Nielsen: "If Correlation Does Not Imply Causation, Then What Does?" (Highly Recommended)


Supplemental:

Judea Pearl: Causality, Chapter 1

Felix Elwert: "Graphical Causal Models"


[8]

2 Dec

Judea Pearl: "The art and science of cause and effect"


Supplemental:

Simon and Rescher: "Cause and Counterfactual"

Jenann Ismael: How Physics Makes Us Free (chapter 5)


Perspectivalism

[9]

9 Dec

Jenann Ismael: “How do causes depend on us: The many faces of perspectivalism”


Supplemental:

Huw Price: "Causal Perspectivalism"

Mathias Frisch: "'Entropy' Accounts of Causation"

Iwasaki and Simon: "Causality and Model Abstraction" (Sections 1 and 2 discuss exogeneity)

Naftali Weinberger: "Near-Decomposability and the Time-Scale Relativity of Causal Representations"

Causal Optimism

[10]

16 Dec


Matthias Frisch: "Causation and Intervention" (From Causal Reasoning in Physics) (Focus on Sections 1-3)


Supplemental:

Korb et al.: "Varieties of Causal Intervention"

Herbert Simon: "Causal Ordering and Identifiability"

David Wallace: "Isolated Systems and Their Symmetries"

3blue1brown (video): "But What Is a Partial Differential Equation?"



[11]

13 Jan

Matthias Frisch: "The Temporal Asymmetry of Causation" (from Causal Reasoning in Physics)

John Norton: "Is there an Independent Principle of Causality in Physics" (Focus on 480-5)


Supplemental:

Farr and Reutlinger: “A Relic of a Bygone Age?: The Symmetry and the Directionality Argument”

Price and Weslake: "The Time Asymmetry of Causation"

Marc Lange, "Causation in Classical Mechanics"


Further Reading:

Matthias Frisch: "'The Most Sacred Tenet'?: Causal Reasoning in Physics"

Matthias Frisch: "Causality and Dispersion: A Reply to John Norton"

For the Truly Virtuous:

Tim Maudlin: "On the Passing of Time" (from The Metaphysics Within Physics)


[12]

20 Jan

Nancy Cartwright: How the Laws of Physics Lie (Introduction)

Nancy Cartwright: "Causal Laws and Effective Strategies" (419-424)


Supplemental (causal realism):

Nancy Cartwright: "Do the Laws of Physics State the Facts?"

Nancy Cartwright: "The Truth Doesn't Explain Much"

Chris Hitchcock: "Causal Explanation and Scientific Realism"

Malcolm Forster: "Review of Cartwright"

Fillion and Moir: "Explanation and Abstraction from a Backward-Analytic Perspective"

Jessica Wilson: "The Causal Argument Against Component Forces"


Supplemental (probabilistic causality):


Further Reading:

Margret Morrison: "Models as Autonomous Agents"

Joshua Rothman: "Why Paper Jams Persist"


[13]

27 Jan

Sheldon Smith: “Resolving Russell’s Antirealism About Causation: The Connection Between Causation and the Functional Dependencies of Mathematical Physics"


Supplemental:

Mark Wilson: Physics Avoidance, Chapter 2 (NOTES)


Conclusion

[14]

3 Feb

No Reading