Causality in Crisis: A Conference on the New Debate About Causal Structures in the Social Sciences to be held at Notre Dame University October 15-16, 1993

社会科学作为科学的地位一直是 岌岌可危 然而，统计所发挥的核心作用 现代社会科学的方法似乎提供了 他们中至少有几个人拥有科学地位的徽章， 作为在社会调查中使用统计数据的一个经常性主题， 统计方法应该能够 揭示了独特的规律和因果关系， 社会秩序是有序的。 然而，今天，主要的方法论问题 社会科学面临的危机是， 最广泛使用的统计方法，通常称为 “因果建模”技术。 这次会议将于10月在圣母大学举行， 1993年，第一次将主要的 目前关于统计数据是否 方法可以产生因果知识。 参加的还有 来自哲学和社会科学的资深评论家， 最广泛地探讨对危机的其他解释 哲学层面。 目前局势的重要性是相当大的，因为 “自然科学”模式的社会科学知识已经有了一个 对许多思想领域产生了重大影响。 其明显 从内部瓦解是一个需要哲学思考的事件 解释。 本次会议承诺将协助 这些争议从狭隘的技术文献中， 进入更大的知识界的意识。

The status of the social sciences as sciences has always been precarious. However, the central role played by statistical methods in the modern social sciences has seemed to provide at least several of them with a badge of scientific status, inasmuch as a recurrent theme in the use of statistics in social inquiry has been the idea that statistical methods should be capable of revealing distinctive laws and causal relations upon which the social world is ordered. Yet today, the major methodological issue confronting the social sciences is the emergence of a crisis over the most widely used statistical methods, generally known as "causal modeling" techniques. This conference, being held at Notre Dame University in October, 1993, is bringing together for the first time the major protagonists in the current debate about whether statistical methods can generate causal knowledge. Also participating are sophisticated critics from philosophy and social sciences who are exploring alternative interpretations of the crisis at the broadest philosophical level. The significance of the present situation is considerable, for the "natural science" model of social scientific knowledge has had a substantial impact on many areas of thought. Its apparent dissolution from within is an event requiring philosophical interpretation. This conference promises to assist in bringing these controversies out of the narrowly technical literature and into the consciousness of the larger intellectual community.