Speaker:

Wang Wei, Professor at the Department of History of Science, School of Humanities, Tsinghua University.

Moderator:

Wang Yanjing, Professor at the Department of Philosophy, Peking University.

Lecture Abstract:

The Risk-A-Lab series lecture, in its first installment, introduced the developmental context of causal inference in terms of both ideas and methods. The second installment of the Risk-A-Lab lecture series will further explore causation from the perspective of the core issues in the philosophy of science. In the field of philosophy of science, the concept of "causation" was questioned in the first half of the 20th century, with a focus on natural laws. However, in recent years, there has been a trend towards causation replacing laws. Professor Wang Wei selects James Woodward, one of the most influential philosophers in the field of causation, to argue:

1) The requirement for invariance is too weak and may lead to self-contradictory or trivially boring invariances.

2) The requirement for modality is too strong and may result in causation that is practically unreasonable.

3) The deep-level concepts contained in laws may not be derivable from causal graphs.

4) It is challenging to effectively manipulate special scientific laws, and the mathematical tradition may play a more significant role than the experimental tradition.

Professor Wang Wei suggests that scientific laws and causation can effectively complement each other, with laws focusing on the broader perspective and causation addressing specific aspects.