Brain Inspired

BI 145 James Woodward: Causation with a Human Face

Aug 28, 2022

01:25:52

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Episode notes

Is There a Causal Inference Strategy?

03:30

Why Do You Hate Metaphysics?

02:36

Is Causation a Metaphysical Story?

02:11

Introduction

5min

The Functionalist Approach to Causal Knowledge

2min

Why Do You Hate Metaphysics?

3min

Is Causation a Metaphysical Story?

2min

Is the Metaphysics of Causation a Good Thing?

2min

The Functionalist Approach to Causation

4min

Is There a Causal Strength?

3min

How Do We Judge and Reason Causal Reasoning?

4min

Is There a Causal Inference Strategy?

4min

10.

Is There a Single Way to Think About Causation?

2min

11.

Type Causation

5min

12.

Is the Relationship Non Envariant?

3min

13.

Is It a Stable Relationship in the Social Sciences?

2min

14.

Is Complexity a Matter of Scale?

2min

15.

Is There a Connection Between a Brain and Behavior?

3min

16.

The Autonomy of Levels in the Brain?

3min

17.

Is There Such a Thing as Downward Causation?

2min

18.

Does a Brain Cause Behavior and Mind?

3min

19.

The Neutonian Gravitational Theory

4min

20.

What Is Proportionality?

3min

21.

Is It Related to Intuitions?

3min

22.

Appeal to Intuition in Philosophy

2min

23.

The Philosophy of Intuition

5min

24.

Causation

3min

25.

What Is the Current Neuro Science of Causal Inference?

4min

26.

Do You and Jude Pearl Hang Out?

3min

27.

Is There an Importance of Confabulating the Reasons Why?

2min

28.

The Evolutionary Error Is Not an Evolutionary Mistake

2min

29.

You're Hearing Music by the New Year

2min

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James Woodward is a recently retired Professor from the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh. Jim has tremendously influenced the field of causal explanation in the philosophy of science. His account of causation centers around intervention - intervening on a cause should alter its effect. From this minimal notion, Jim has described many facets and varieties of causal structures. In this episode, we discuss topics from his recent book, Causation with a Human Face: Normative Theory and Descriptive Psychology. In the book, Jim advocates that how we should think about causality - the normative - needs to be studied together with how we actually do think about causal relations in the world - the descriptive. We discuss many topics around this central notion, epistemology versus metaphysics, the the nature and varieties of causal structures.

0:00 - Intro 4:14 - Causation with a Human Face & Functionalist approach 6:16 - Interventionist causality; Epistemology and metaphysics 9:35 - Normative and descriptive 14:02 - Rationalist approach 20:24 - Normative vs. descriptive 28:00 - Varying notions of causation 33:18 - Invariance 41:05 - Causality in complex systems 47:09 - Downward causation 51:14 - Natural laws 56:38 - Proportionality 1:01:12 - Intuitions 1:10:59 - Normative and descriptive relation 1:17:33 - Causality across disciplines 1:21:26 - What would help our understanding of causation