Selected Talks
For a full list, see my CV. Slides for some talks available upon request.
"Polygene Risk Scores" ISH, Toronto, July, 2023.
"Some Reflections on Actual Causation and Causal Selection" Society for Philosophy and Psychology, Pittsburgh, June, 2023.
"The Wordly Underpinnings of Causation" Tel Aviv University, May 2023.
"Reflections on Some Strategies for Causal Inference in Psychiatry" Conference on " Causality in Psychiatric Research and Practice" Copenhagen, May 2023.
"Comments on Zachar" Conference on " Causality in Psychiatric Research and Practice" Copenhagen, May 2023
"Batter(man)ing Fundamentalism: Reflections on Autonomy, Reduction and the Meso-scale in A Middle Way" Batterman workshop. Pittsburgh January, 2023. Slides available at Philsci Archive.
"Polygene Risk Scores: A Philosophical Exploration" (joint with Ken Kendler) Conference on New Perspectives on Causation in the Life Sciences, University of Kent, June 2022.
"The Wordly Underpinnings of Causation" (based on joint work with Nafali Weinberger and Porter Williams ) Conference on Causal Perspectivalism, University of Birmingham, June, 2022.
"Responses to Commentators" (Part of Invited Book Symposium on Causation with a Human Face ) American Philosophical Association, Pacific Division, April, 2022)
"Irreversible (One-hit) and Reversible (Sustaining) Causation" (with Lauren Ross). Philosophy of Science Associaton meetings, November, 2021.
“Flagpoles Anyone? Causal and Explanatory Asymmetries,” UCLA, February, 2020
“Downward Causation, Conditional Independence and Autonomy” American Philosophical Association, Pacific Division Meeting, April 2019.
“Some Reflections on the Psychology and Neurobiology of Moral Decision- Making” United States Naval Academy, April, 2019.
“Causal Complexity, Conditional Independence, and Downward Causation” Philosophy of Science Association Meetings, Seattle, November, 2018.
“Flagpoles Anyone? Independence, Invariance and the Direction of Causation” Carnegie- Mellon University, September, 2018.
“Downward Causation, Conditional Independence and Abstraction” Workshop at the University of Copenhagen, August 2018.
“Levels: What are They and Work Do They Do?” Workshop on Philosophical Issues in Psychiatry V: The Problems of Multiple Levels, Explanatory Pluralism, Reduction and Emergence. Copenhagen, May 2018.
“Levels and Downward Causation”. Workshop on Hierarchy and Levels of Organization in the Biological Sciences. Konrad Lorenz Institute, Vienna, March, 2018.
“Downward Causation Defended” Central Division APA, Chicago, February 2018
“Flagpoles Anyone? Independence, Invariance and the Direction of Causation” UC, Irvine, February, 2018.
“Causal Judgment: What Can Philosophy Learn from Experiment? What Can It Contribute to Experiment?” Ranch Metaphysics Workshop. Tucson, AZ. January, 2018.
“Causal Reasoning in Physics” Workshop on “Where is Causation?” Umea, Sweden, October, 2017
“Causation with a Human Face” Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, February, 2017.
“Causation with a Human Face” Stanford University, January, 2017.
Symposium on Wolfgang Spohn’s Laws of Belief Eastern Division, American Philosophical Association, January 2017.
“Normative theory and descriptive psychology in understanding causal reasoning: The role of invariance/stability” August 2016, International Conference on Thinking, Brown University.
Comments on Mathias Frisch, “Causal Reasoning in Physics” American Philosophical Association, Pacific Division, April, 2016.
“Flagpoles Anyone? Independence, Invariance and the Direction of Causation” Conference in Honor of John Worrall. London School of Economics, March, 2016.
“Physical Modality, Grounds, and Invariance” Conference on New Trends in the Metaphysics of Science. University of Paris/Sorbonne. December, 2015.
“Flagpoles Anyone? Independence, Invariance, and the Direction of Explanation” Conference on “Hempel and Beyond”. University of Cologne, September, 2015.
“Objectivity in Variable Choice for Causal Inference” Conference on Objectivity in Science. Tilburg University. June, 2015.
“Sketch of a Pragmatist Philosophy of Science” Conference on PragMAPS: Pragmatism at the Intersection of Metaphysics and Philosophy of Science. University of Oslo. June 2015.
“Explanation in Neurobiology: An Interventionist Perspective” Conference in honor of Dan Hausman. University of Wisconsin, Madison, May, 2015.
“Some Issues concerning explanation in neurobiology: interventionism, mechanism and beyond” Workshop in honor of James Bogen, University of Pittsburgh, March 2015.
“Causal Attribution, causal modelling and disease interventions” Workshop sponsored by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation as part of Global Burden of Disease Project. Geneva, Switzerland, June, 2014.
“Methodology, Ontology, and Interventionism” New directions in pragmatic metaphysics for philosophy of science, Simon Fraser University, April, 2014.
“Normative Theory and Descriptive Psychology in Understanding Causal Reasoning: The Role of Interventions and Invariance” Conference at the University of A Coruna, Spain on Philosophy of Psychology: The Conception of James Woodward March, 2014
“Causal Cognition: Physical Connections, Proportionality, and the Role of Normative Theory” Conference at the University of A Coruna, Spain on Philosophy of Psychology: The Conception of James Woodward March, 2014.
“Interventionism Defended: Methodology, Cirularity and Truth Conditions” Workshop on Causation: New Prospects, College de France, December, 2013.
“Causal Cognition: Physical Connections, Proportionality, and the Role of Normative Theory” To appear in a volume edited by W. Gonzalez, tentative title Philosophy of Psychology: The Conception of James Woodward
“Causation: Interactions Between Philosophical Theories and Psychological Research” Department of Philosophy, Johns Hopkins University, January, 2014.
“Mechanistic Explanation in Biology: Its Scope and Limits” Missouri Philosophy of Science (MOPS) Workshop, U of Missouri, October, 2013.
“Mechanism and Explanation in Biology: Its Scope and Limits” Congress on Logic and Philosophy of Science, University of Ghent, September, 2013.
“Interactions between Normative (Philosophical/ Computational) Theories of Causation and Empirical Research on Causal Cognition” Workshop on Causality: Perspectives from Different Disciplines, Therme Vals, Switzerland, August, 2013.
“Mechanistic Explanation: Its Scope and Limits” Joint Meeting of Aristotelian Society/Mind Association Exeter, UK, July, 2013
“The problem of Variable Choice” Workshop on Methodology and Ontology, Virginia Tech, May, 2013.
“Causation: Interactions between Philosophical Theories and Psychological Research” Ohio State University, April, 2012.
“Causation: Interactions between Philosophical Theories and Psychological Research” University of Wisconsin Madison, February, 2012.
“A Functional Account of Causation” PSA 2012 meetings, November, 2012, San Diego
“An Interventionist Account of Causation, HKUST, May, 2012
“Causation: Interactions Between Philosophical Theories and Psychological Research” Lingnan Univeristy May, 2012
“Mechanisms Reconsidered” Lingnan University, May, 2012
“Mechanisms in Biology” Center for Philosophy of Science Workshop, University of Minnesota, May, 2012
“Emotion versus Cognition in Moral Decision-Making: A Dubious Dichotomy” NYU workshop on the moral brain, March, 2012
“Causation: Interactions Between Philosophical Theories and Psychological Research’’ University of North Carolina colloquium in philosophy, November, 2011.
“Looking Times and Infant Causal Understanding” McDonnell Conference on Causal Learning, Montreal, April, 2011.
“Mechanisms Reconsidered” Conference on Counterfactuals and Mechanisms. Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris, March 2011
“Causation in Biology: Stability, Specificity, and Proportionality” Alberto Coffa Memorial Lecture. Indiana University. November 2010
“Causation: Interactions between Philosophical Theories and Psychological Research” Philosophy of Science Association Meeting, Montreal, November, 2010
“Causation in biology: Stability, Specificity and the Choice of Levels of Explanation” Keynote address. British Society for Philosophy of Science. July 2010.
“Causal Learning and Judgment: Covariation and Contact Mechanics” Opening Celebration Conference. Center for Formal Epistemology. Carnegie Mellon University, June, 2010.
“Cooperation and Reciprocity : Empirical Evidence and Normative Implications” Conference for Oxford Handbook of Social Science, Birmingham, Alabama, April 2010
“Comments on Jonathan Waskan’s “In Search of a Non-Counterfactual Foundation for Mechanistic Explanation” American Philosophical Association Meetings, Pacific Division. San Francisco. April, 2010.
“Causation in biology: Stability, Specificity and the Choice of Levels of Explanation” Rice University, Houston, March 2010
“Causation in Biology: Stability, Specificity, and the Choice of Levels of Explanation” Keynote at Virginia Tech Graduate Student Conference, November, 2009.
“Learning about causal relationships: action and observation, covariation and contact mechanics” Cognitive Development Society, San Antonio, October, 2009.
“Laws, Counterfactuals, and Invariance”, Metaphysics of Science conference, Nottingham, September, 2009
“Causation in Genetics (and elsewhere in Biology): Stability, Specificity, and the Choice of Levels of Explanation” Behavioral Genetics Association, Minneapolis, June 2009
“Causation in Biology: Stability, Proportionality, and Specificity” Society for Philosophy of Science in Practice, Minneapolis, June 2009
“Why Do People Cooperate? Empirical Evidence and Normative Implications” Pacific APA, Vancouver, April, 2009.
“Why Do People Cooperate? Empirical Evidence and Normative Implications” Evolution, Game Theory and the Social Contract Conference, UC-Irvine, March, 2009