Causality

lecture course (in English) 
(Thu 18:00-19:30,  Room 221)


Codes:

BBN-FIL-401.44
BMA-FILD-401.44
BMI-LOTD17-206E.01
BMA-LOTD17-206.01


What does causation consist in, and, depending on the possible answers, what are the basic characteristics of a causal relationship? -- this is the main topic of the lecture course.  We shall also discuss the most important contexts of causality: the relationship of causality to concepts of explanation, law-like regularity, statistical correlation, time, modality, and logical inference. Our considerations will be based on the analysis of the causal narratives in our scientific, first of all, physical theories; rather than our every day experiences or common sense intuition.

The lecture slides will be available in a pdf file.

Further suggested readings:

• E. Szabó László: A nyitott jövő problémája - véletlen, kauzalitás és determinizmus a fizikában, Typotex Könyvkiadó, Budapest, 2002. (A könyv javított digitális kiadása PDF formában letölthető innen.)
  
• Causation, Oxford Readings in Philosophy, E. Sosa and M. Tooley, eds., Oxford University Press (1997)
• Belnap, N. (1992): Branching space-time, Synthese 92, 385.
• H. Reichenbach: The philosophy of space and time, Dover Publications, New York, 1958.
• G. Hofer-Szabó, M. Rédei, L. E. Szabó: The Principle of the Common Cause, Cambridge University Press, 2013.
• The Einstein--Podolsky--Rosen Argument and the Bell Inequalities, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2008)