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Absent Causes, Present Effects: How Omissions Cause Events| old_uid | 7255 |
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| title | Absent Causes, Present Effects: How Omissions Cause Events |
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| start_date | 2009/06/25 |
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| schedule | 14h-16h |
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| online | no |
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| summary | Results sometimes occur from absences, as when we say 'Lack of water caused the plant to wilt' or 'The absence of nicotine causes withdrawal'. The phenomenon of causation by omission has been viewed as an insurmountable problem for theories of causation that specify causation in terms of forces or energy but not for theories that specify causation in terms of statistical or counterfactual dependencies. In my talk, I describe a new account of causation that challenges this assumption. In the force theory, absences can be causal when they involve the removal or non-realization of a force, which then leads to an effect. Evidence in support of this account is provided in a series of experiments in which people classified complex 3D animations depicting effects resulting from the removal of forces. The findings not only reconcile how causation by omission can be grounded in the physical world, but also how people designate which absences, amongst the potentially infinite number of absences, are causal. |
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| responsibles | Copley |
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