Emergence, Exclusion, and Causation Workshop
The Glasgow Emergence Project is pleased to announce the Emergence, Exclusion, and Causation Workshop to be held at the Centre for the Study of Perceptual Experience on 14 & 15 April 2016.
Emergentists and non-reductive physicalists are trying to steer a path between the dualism and an outright reductionism about the mind. But around thirty years ago, Jaegwon Kim argued that this path leads them to an unpalatable epiphenomenalism. Subsequently, debate about his "exclusion argument" seemed to reach a stalemate, with both parties helping themselves to assumptions about causation that suit their needs. But in recent years, a number of philosophers have suggested breaking the stalemate by drawing on the specialized literature on causation. The idea is to decide first what the best theory of causation is, and then examine what kind of exclusion argument, if any, this theory supports. The aim of this workshop is to bring together specialists on causation, to explore the viability of non-epiphenomenalist emergentism.
Speakers:
- Michael Baumgartner (University of Geneva) "The Inherent Empirical Underdetermination of Mental Causation"
- Vera Hoffmann-Kolss (University of Cologne) TBA
- Marie Kaiser (University of Cologne) TBA
- Max Kistler (University Paris 1) "Downward causation, interventionism and proportionality"
- Stephan Leuenberger (University of Glasgow): "Does Realisation-Insensitivity Entail Downwards Exclusion?"
- Neil McDonnell (University of Hamburg) "Making a Difference and Making a Contribution"
- Julian Reiss (Durham University) TBA
- Brad Weslake (NYU Shanghai) "Interventionism, Externalism and Exclusion"
Location: Reid Room, 67 - 69 Oakfield Avenue, University of Glasgow
Organisers: Umut Baysan, Stephan Leuenberger
No registration required, but please email stephan.leuenberger@glasgow.ac.uk if you would like to attend.
We gratefully acknowledge support from the Templeton Foundation (via the Durham Emergence Project), the Scots Philosophical Association, and the School of Humanities at the University of Glasgow.