1. Pag. Jan Lemeire ETRO dept., Vrije Universiteit Brussel Causality in the World vs Causality in the Mind Examples that puzzle philosophers 1.Me not watering my neighbors’ plants is the cause of their death Causation by omission 2.Dr. Jeckyl’s mother => Dr. Jeckyl => Mr. Hyde => Mr. Hyde committing crimes Dr. Jeckyl’s mother is the cause of the crimes? 1

2. Pag. Jan Lemeire ETRO dept., Vrije Universiteit Brussel Causality in the World vs Causality in the Mind Different Accounts of Causality 2  Difference-making  Mechanistic 1)Probabilistic account 2)Difference-making account 3)Counterfactual account 4)Mechanistic account 5)Manipulationist account None of them capture all aspects of causality Dualism?

3. 3 Causality in the World versus Causality in the Mind. 3Ghent Workshop Jan Lemeire Mechanisms and Causality in the Sciences Canterbury, September 9 th 2009

4. Pag. Jan Lemeire ETRO dept., Vrije Universiteit Brussel Causality in the World vs Causality in the Mind The world 4 How the world goes from one state to the next seems to be governed by laws Space and time Causality in the world = causation ≈ mechanisms A law describes that an event A under some background conditions will result in event B

5. Pag. Jan Lemeire ETRO dept., Vrije Universiteit Brussel Causality in the World vs Causality in the Mind The Mind The mind wants to understand the world and know what’s going to happen. Describe the things that are present in world Describe by laws how world moves, how events generate others To do so: mind mimics the world by simulating it Simulation tells us what will happen starting from an initial world, a set of interventions and a set of laws Runs parallel to the real world Makes hypothetical worlds possible 5

6. Pag. Jan Lemeire ETRO dept., Vrije Universiteit Brussel Causality in the World vs Causality in the Mind 6 Default world Default reasoning: Based on what we know about the state and laws of the world “In absence of other factors, A will result in B.” If simulation result is different than actual world: there must be a cause explaining the difference by making the outcome more probable by adding the cause to our simulation. 6

7. Pag. Jan Lemeire ETRO dept., Vrije Universiteit Brussel Causality in the World vs Causality in the Mind Example I got a fine while walking around  ?? I crossed the road when it was red !! In Brussels…  ?? The policeman shouted !! 7 Causality in the mind ≈ causal explanation

8. Pag. Jan Lemeire ETRO dept., Vrije Universiteit Brussel Causality in the World vs Causality in the Mind Context –Dependence of Causality See Menzies’ work: Peter Menzies, Causation in Context, In Huw Price & Richard Corry (eds.), Causation, Physics, and the Constitution of Reality: Russell's Republic Revisited. Oxford University Press, 2007. Peter Menzies, Difference-Making in Context, in John Collins, Ned Hall and L.A. Paul (eds.), causation and counterfactuals, MIT, 2004. 8 We give a detailed account of the notion of default world Default world requires no explanation Consists of what we know

9. Pag. Jan Lemeire ETRO dept., Vrije Universiteit Brussel Causality in the World vs Causality in the Mind World-Mind distinction explains: 1.Causation by omission Normally x would happen, unless y – which is taken for granted - unexpectedly does not occur 2.Why J’s mother is not the cause of J’s crimes (and thus not responsible) J’s mother does not make the crimes more probable. Unless she gave J a bad education 3.Difference between causes and conditions 4.It shows how to check counterfactual statements ¬A => ¬B 9

10. Pag. Jan Lemeire ETRO dept., Vrije Universiteit Brussel Causality in the World vs Causality in the Mind Conclusions We tried to clarify the apparent dualism of causality based on an analysis of how the mind tries to grasp the world. To do so, the mind makes a fundamental assumption about how we ought to look at the world: laws state how state at t goes to state t+1 Mind explains, predicts and reasons about the world by simulating it. All the mind knows defines the default world. 10 Causes in the world are potential causes in the mind; causes in the mind are difference-makers with respect to the default world.