Dear all, Next week, Serious Metaphysics will feature Robert Northcott (Birbeck) on 'Pre-emption and Causation' (abstract below). We'll meet at 12pm in the Faculty Board Room, and we'll go for an informal lunch afterwards - all welcome.
Best, Emily ________________________ Pre-emption cases are the most famous difficulty for the counterfactual theory of causation. Responses have included various refinements of the counterfactual theory, simple rejection of that theory, or recourse to pluralism. I'll propose a different response, namely defending a very simple version of the counterfactual theory via an explicit appeal to psychology. To this end, I present new pre-emption cases in which our causal judgment has been empirically shown to be the reverse of that in standard cases. I explain why this situation tells against every current theory. I then argue that such judgment-reversals do indirectly offer one way out - but it is a way out available to the counterfactual theory alone. If this analysis is correct, the true theoretical implications of pre-emption cases are then quite the opposite of what is usually thought - for they end up telling in <favour> of the counterfactual theory of causation, not against it. Will the format indeed be roughly 30 mins talk plus 30 mins Q&A? (That's fine if it is.) Let me know the exact venue. The start time's 1pm, right? And yes, I'd love to go for lunch afterwards! Oh yes, one more thing - I was planning to use powerpoint. Will that be possible? Thanks again for organizing all this - Cheers, Robert PS. I told Huw and Arif I'd let them know about this talk so I suppose you should email any announcement to them, although I imagine they're on your regular mailing list anyway? ________________________________________ From: A.E.E. Thomas [[email protected]] on behalf of Emily Thomas [[email protected]] Sent: 12 December 2011 01:24 To: Northcott, Robert Subject: RE: Serious Metaphysics - talk invitation Hi Robert, Yes that's great - thanks! (As you can see, I'm up in the middle of the morning doing emails...) Just send me a title and an abstract about a week before. I'm in the process of gathering opinions regarding the length of the session and it looks as though it will be reduced to one hour (so, 30 minutes talk and 30 minutes discussion). Also, if you like, I can suggest to the group that we go to lunch afterwards? Best, Emily On Dec 12 2011, Northcott, Robert wrote: >Hi Emily, >Am up in the middle of the night, so might as well do some emails... > > Jan 23 would be great - can I 'book' that date? Nearer the time, I'll > send you an abstract of course, or however you normally arrange things. > Thanks, Robert > >________________________________ > >From: A.E.E. Thomas on behalf of Emily Thomas >Sent: Fri 09/12/2011 12:05 >To: Northcott, Robert >Subject: RE: Serious Metaphysics - talk invitation > > > >Hi Robert, > >That's great, thanks! The dates I currently have free around those times >are Jan 16, 23; or Feb 13 or 20th. > >I look forward to hearing more. > >Best, >Emily > >On Dec 7 2011, Northcott, Robert wrote: > >>Hi Emily, >>Yes, I'd like to speak - thank you for the invitation. >> >> Not quite sure re exact dates yet - for me I'd want some time in January >> or February, maybe earlyish Feb, but I'll have to think that over. Of >> course, I'm sure you have constraints re dates at your end too. >> >>Best wishes, >>Robert >> >>________________________________ >> >>From: A.E.E. Thomas on behalf of Emily Thomas >>Sent: Wed 07/12/2011 05:26 >>To: Northcott, Robert >>Subject: Serious Metaphysics - talk invitation >> >> >> >>Dear Robert, >> >> As you may remember, last week I wondered whether you might like to >> present a paper at the Cambridge Serious Metaphysics Club. After >> Christmas we'll be meeting on Monday lunchtimes (and will go for lunch >> afterwards). Would you be interested? It would be really great if so! >> >>All the best, >>Emily >> >> >> > > > _____________________________________________________ Sent by the CamPhilEvents mailing list. To unsubscribe or change your membership options, please visit the list information page: http://bit.ly/CamPhilEvents Posts are now archived here: http://bit.ly/CamPhilEventsArchive
