Event Details

This talk is meant to be an opinionated overview of recent developments in the philosophy of causation. It will begin by distinguishing two different kinds of causal relations: causation, on the one hand, and influence, on the other. Influence is a relation holding between variables and causation is a relation holding between the values of variables. Influence is importantly related to the relation of control; whereas causation is importantly related to the attribution of moral and legal responsibility. There have been many recent attempts to give a theory of these relations using what I will call ‘Causal Influence Models’ (these models are closely related to ‘causal influence diagrams’; they are otherwise known as ‘causal models’). These attempts have taught us an important lesson: any adequate theory of causation or influence will need more information than a causal influence model on its own is able to give us. I will briefly discuss what the missing factor might be.

February 7, 2025

Join Zoom Meeting
https://usc.zoom.us/j/97902316747?pwd=eZtOGyzaz75wY9gB683wLkhGT9lcIk.1
Meeting ID: 979 0231 6747
Passcode: 2025

Host: Eric Boxer
POC: Maura Covaci

Speaker Bio

As of August, 2024, I will be an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Southern California. Before coming to USC, I will hold a visiting position at the National University of Singapore. I have held positions at the late Dianoia Institute of Philosophy, the University of Pittsburgh, and New York University. I received my Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 2014.

I mostly think and write about the metaphysics of causation and chance, the rational norms governing credence and choice, and the connections between those topics. I have teaching interests in the philosophy of science, metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, the philosophy of language, the philosophy of economics, and logic.