Causation from the Point of View of Physics

Understanding the Nature of Inference: Correlation and Causation Colloquium Series

There has been an enormous burgeoning of interest in causation across the sciences. One can open up a journal in microbiology and be assailed with detailed models of  the causal structure of cells and proteins. One can find textbooks on the increasing array of computational tools for causal search and discovery and take classes devoted to formal methods in causal modeling. Psychologists are unraveling new details about how people use causal concepts in reasoning.

While details of these kinds are in abundant supply, it remains a contested question what causation is and how it fits into a physics-based ontology.

In this talk, Professor Ismael will assemble the pieces of emerging scientific understanding of causation into an account of where (and how) causation arises in the architecture of the cosmos, with special attention to the contested questions of where the direction of causation comes from and its relationship agency.

Saturday, September 25
Moderated conversation with James Woodward, University of Pittsburgh

Sponsored by the Franke Program in Science and the Humanities, John Templeton Foundation
Registration link for both events
Poster