Confidence and Causality Niels van Miltenburg
Presentation Outline
Introduce von Wright’s ideas with the help of an example of an experiment
Presentation Outline Introduce von Wright’s ideas with the help of an example of an experiment Distinguish between von Wright’s “strong” and “weak” positions
Presentation Outline Introduce von Wright’s ideas with the help of an example of an experiment Distinguish between von Wright’s “strong” and “weak” positions Argue that the “weak” position is the most interesting position
Magnifying Glass Example
Does the intervention need to be a human action?
Magnifying Glass Example Does the intervention need to be a human action? Von Wright: “Yes”
Magnifying Glass Example Does the intervention need to be a human action? Von Wright: “Yes” What makes action so special?
Magnifying Glass Example Does the intervention need to be a human action? Von Wright: “Yes” What makes action so special? Von Wright: There is a conceptual connection between the concepts of causation and action
Counterfactual Element in Action
Certain changes in nature would not have occurred had we not produced them
Counterfactual Element in Action Certain changes in nature would not have occurred had we not produced them We can only act because we are confident that the world remains fairly stable
Strong vs Weak
Strong: ‘p causes q’ means that we could produce q by bringing about p
Strong vs Weak Strong: ‘p causes q’ means that we could produce q by bringing about p Weak: We distinguish between causal relations and accidental regularities by using the notion of action, which is conceptually connected with the notion of causation
“Causalaria”
A B
Hume Given the fact that we can only observe regularly succeeding events, why do we see them as causally linked?
Confidence and Knowledge
Confidence is intrinsic to our actions and constitutes our ability to act
Confidence and Knowledge Confidence is intrinsic to our actions and constitutes our ability to act Analogy with Anscombe’s ‘knowledge without observation’
Thanks for Listening