Week 10, 18 March 2014 (17:00-19:00 Watson 310)

Speaker: Alastair Wilson (Birmingham)
Causation and Counterfactual Dependence in Mathematics

Abstract:

Recent metaphysics has seen a surge of interest in 'non-causal explanation', and especially in the notion of one fact grounding another. The notion of grounding promises to cast new light on mathematical explanation, which is not handled cleanly by orthodox philosophical theories of explanation. I sketch a theory of grounding according to which it constitutes a generalized form of causal dependence, and explore potential applications to explanation in mathematics and logic.

About the seminar

The Midlands Logic Seminar was founded in 2011 and aims to cover all areas of mathematical logic, as well as related areas of theoretical computer science, and philosophy of mathematics.

Logistics

All meetings for Term 2, 2013-14 will be Tuesday from 17:00-19:00 in room 310 of Watson Building (School of Mathematics) on the campus of the University of Birmingham.
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    To get to campus, take the train from Birmingham New Street to the University stop (7 minutes).

    Organizers

    Dr Richard Kaye
    School of Mathematics
    University of Birmingham

    http://web.mat.bham.ac.uk/R.W.Kaye/

    Dr Walter Dean
    Department of Philosophy
    University of Warwick

    http://go.warwick.ac.uk/whdean