INDUCTIVE METAPHYSICS
  • Subprojects 2017-2020
    • A1: The Research Programme of Inductive Metaphysics from Gustav Theodor Fechner to Erich Becher and beyond
    • A2: Creative Abductive Inference and Its Role for Inductive Metaphysics in Comparison to Other Metaphysical Methods
    • A4: Kant and Inductive Methods in 18th Century Metaphysics
    • B1: Modality in Physics and in Metaphysics
    • B2: Properties and Property Individuation
    • B4: Determinism, Control, and the Consequence Argument
    • B5: Statistical Causation, Intervention, and Freedom
  • Subprojects 2020-2023
    • A1: Inductive Metaphysics and Logical Empiricism
    • A2: Creative Abductive Inference and its Role for Inductive Metaphysics
    • A4: Inductive Methods in Kant and Neo-Kantianism
    • B6: The Role of Inference to the best explanation in the discovery of Gravitational Waves
    • B7: Graded Causation
    • B8: The Time of science and the time of our lives
    • B9: Complex biological dispositions: a case study in the metaphysics of biological practice
    • B10: Metaphysics of Evolution: justification and ontology of generalized evolution theory
    • B11: Abductive Methodology in the philosophy of logic
  • Events
    • Inductive Metaphysics: Insights, Challenges and Prospects
    • Non-Reductionism in the Metaphysics of Mind
    • Essences, Dispositions and Laws in Kant
    • The Methodology of Logic: Abductivist and Non-abductivist Approaches
    • Grounding and the Direction of Explanation
    • Wochenendseminar zur Philosophie der Physik
    • Dispositions in the Life-Sciences Contemporary and Historical Perspectives
    • New Work on Induction and Abduction
    • Compatibilist Libertarianism: Advantages and Challenges
    • Metaphysics as Modelling. Contemporary and Kantian Issues
    • Laws and Explanations in Metaphysics and Science
    • Causation and Responsibility
    • Thinking About the Cultural Evolution of Thinking
    • Causal Distinctions: Specificity and Beyond
    • Free Will and Causality
    • Epistemic Engineering
    • Counterpossibles, Counternomics and Causal Theories of Properties
    • The Possibility of Metaphysics
    • Abduction and Modelling in Metaphysics
    • Kant's Concepts of Metaphysics
    • Freedom and Determinism
    • What Do We Do When We Do Metaphysics?
    • Properties and Laws in the Light of Inductive Metaphysics
    • Free Will and Laws of Nature
    • Traditional and Inductive Metaphysics
    • Spacetime: Fundamental or Emergent?
  • People
  • Research
    • Publications
    • Talks
  • Contact

Statistical Causation, Intervention, and Freedom
​

PI: Prof. Dr. Gerhard Schurz (Düsseldorf)
Dr. Alexander Gebharter (Düsseldorf)
​

Project B5 “Statistical Causation, Intervention, and Freedom” investigates metaphysical questions concerning human action and freedom on the basis of the theory of causal Bayes nets. The answer to such questions depends on the specific theory of causation endorsed. Using the theory of causal Bayes nets as one’s background theory of causation seems promising from the viewpoint of Inductive Metaphysics: The theory’s core can be backed up by an inference to the best explanation of certain empirical phenomena and several versions of the theory are empirically testable.
Project B5 is specifically interested in the following four research questions (RQs). RQ1 asks how much freedom and which kinds of freedom are possible in light of a causal Bayes net framework. RQ2 is about how much freedom we have to assume to explain empirical phenomena such as successful cases of causal discovery by means of interventions, especially in experimentation and randomisation. Driven by an inference to the best explanation—one of the most important methods of Inductive Metaphysics—B5 will develop a general and interdisciplinary theory of freedom. RQ3 investigates which empirical consequences are implied by different versions of the theory of causal Bayes nets when one adds different assumptions about free human interventions. Finally, RQ4 will reconstruct prominent arguments from the literature on the freedom of human will and action within the theory of causal Bayes nets and evaluate their validity and the plausibility of their premises from the viewpoint of this particular theory of causation. In doing so, B5 will focus especially on arguments for or against the compatibility of freedom and indeterminism. 
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  • Subprojects 2017-2020
    • A1: The Research Programme of Inductive Metaphysics from Gustav Theodor Fechner to Erich Becher and beyond
    • A2: Creative Abductive Inference and Its Role for Inductive Metaphysics in Comparison to Other Metaphysical Methods
    • A4: Kant and Inductive Methods in 18th Century Metaphysics
    • B1: Modality in Physics and in Metaphysics
    • B2: Properties and Property Individuation
    • B4: Determinism, Control, and the Consequence Argument
    • B5: Statistical Causation, Intervention, and Freedom
  • Subprojects 2020-2023
    • A1: Inductive Metaphysics and Logical Empiricism
    • A2: Creative Abductive Inference and its Role for Inductive Metaphysics
    • A4: Inductive Methods in Kant and Neo-Kantianism
    • B6: The Role of Inference to the best explanation in the discovery of Gravitational Waves
    • B7: Graded Causation
    • B8: The Time of science and the time of our lives
    • B9: Complex biological dispositions: a case study in the metaphysics of biological practice
    • B10: Metaphysics of Evolution: justification and ontology of generalized evolution theory
    • B11: Abductive Methodology in the philosophy of logic
  • Events
    • Inductive Metaphysics: Insights, Challenges and Prospects
    • Non-Reductionism in the Metaphysics of Mind
    • Essences, Dispositions and Laws in Kant
    • The Methodology of Logic: Abductivist and Non-abductivist Approaches
    • Grounding and the Direction of Explanation
    • Wochenendseminar zur Philosophie der Physik
    • Dispositions in the Life-Sciences Contemporary and Historical Perspectives
    • New Work on Induction and Abduction
    • Compatibilist Libertarianism: Advantages and Challenges
    • Metaphysics as Modelling. Contemporary and Kantian Issues
    • Laws and Explanations in Metaphysics and Science
    • Causation and Responsibility
    • Thinking About the Cultural Evolution of Thinking
    • Causal Distinctions: Specificity and Beyond
    • Free Will and Causality
    • Epistemic Engineering
    • Counterpossibles, Counternomics and Causal Theories of Properties
    • The Possibility of Metaphysics
    • Abduction and Modelling in Metaphysics
    • Kant's Concepts of Metaphysics
    • Freedom and Determinism
    • What Do We Do When We Do Metaphysics?
    • Properties and Laws in the Light of Inductive Metaphysics
    • Free Will and Laws of Nature
    • Traditional and Inductive Metaphysics
    • Spacetime: Fundamental or Emergent?
  • People
  • Research
    • Publications
    • Talks
  • Contact