22-23 Oct 2018
Rostock, Germany
*** Call for Registration *** *** FORMAL CAUSATION *** *** 22--23 October 2018 *** University of Rostock, Germany ***** Formal causation, one of the four traditional kinds of causation distinguished by Aristotle, is currently heavily under-researched and has even fallen into disrepute. Formal causation is at play whenever a thing has a certain property because it is of a certain kind. Such properties are normally called essential properties. For instance, whales have the disposition to breathe with lungs because they are mammals. There is an extensive and influential trend in contemporary philosophy studying causation in terms of dispositions, while the question of why things have some dispositions (or other properties) and lack others in the first place has largely been ignored. The conference will explore formal causation, i.e., the view that an object having a property such as a disposition can be explained through kind membership. Some of the talks will be historical work, mainly on Aristotle, some will be systematic work on the contemporary discussion, and some will combine both historical and systematic approaches. Especially relevant for formal causation are the contemporary debates about essence and necessity, dependence and grounding, laws of nature, universals, dispositions, and functions. The conference is funded through the DFG-project ?Formal Causation in Aristotle and in Analytic Metaphysics and Philosophy of Science?. On Monday morning we start at 09:00, and we end on Tuesday at 18:15. We are organizing dinners both on Monday and Tuesday evening, as well as a get-together on Sunday. *Speakers* Christopher Austin (Sutton Grammar School, London) Nicola Carraro (Campinas & CEU Budapest) Michael Ferejohn (Duke) Giacomo Giannini (Durham) Ludger Jansen (Rostock/Bochum) Kathrin Koslicki (Alberta) James G. Lennox (Pittsburgh) Anna Marmodoro (Durham/Oxford) Stephen Mumford (Durham) David Oderberg (Reading) Christof Rapp (LMU Munich) Petter Sandstad (Rostock) Wolfgang Sattler (Unaffilated) Benjamin Schnieder (Hamburg) Tuomas Tahko (Bristol) Barbara Vetter (FU Berlin) *Organisation*Ludger Jansen, Rostock/Bochum Petter Sandstad, Rostock *Venue:*IBZ, Bergstraße 7a, 18057 Rostock *Registration: *There is no conference fee, but places are limited. Thus please register by 8th October by sending an e-mail to (also for further information) Petter Sandstad: petter.sandstad@uni-rostock.de When registering, please let us know whether you will be attending both days of the conference, and also whether you would like to attend the dinners. *Website:* https://www.iph.uni-rostock.de/forschung/formale-verursachung/workshop-formal-causation-rostock-22-23-october-2018/ *PhilEvents site:* https://philevents.org/event/show/40814 Greetings from Rostock, Ludger Jansen and Petter Sandstad --- DFG Project ?Formal Causation? PD Dr. Ludger Jansen & Petter Sandstad Institute of Philosophy, University of Rostock 18051 Rostock, Germany https://www.iph.uni-rostock.de/forschung/formale-verursachung/ -- [LOGIC] mailing list http://www.dvmlg.de/mailingliste.html Archive: http://www.illc.uva.nl/LogicList/ provided by a collaboration of the DVMLG, the Maths Departments in Bonn and Hamburg, and the ILLC at the Universiteit van Amsterdam