Conference and Workshop Support: Philosophical perspectives on causal reasoning in biology. Held at the University of Minnesota Minneapolis, MN in Spring 2011 and Spring 2012.

因果推理在生物学中起着核心作用，生物学中许多以哲学为导向的争论，比如关于选择水平的争论或关于基因决定的争论，最好是用明确的因果术语来描述。大多数关于因果关系的哲学解释都是建立在这样一个假设上的：对简单系统的原因分析将自动（或“原则上”）适用于复杂的因果系统。许多生物学哲学家倾向于相反的假设：他们怀疑对高度理想化的简单系统的哲学分析能否为阐明生物学家所研究的各种复杂系统的因果关系提供基础。本次研讨会将通过探索因果关系的抽象描述可以帮助分析复杂系统中的因果关系的可能性，以及分析复杂系统中的因果关系可以帮助哲学家更普遍地理解因果关系，从而开启探究。这个合作项目将汇集研究复杂因果系统的生物学家，分析因果模型和生物学实验的生物学哲学家，以及开发旨在阐明因果关系和因果推理本质的抽象理论的因果关系哲学家。考虑到兴趣的重叠，人们可能会认为这些研究人员已经在交谈了。但这些群体之间的思想交流是有限的，甚至在生物学哲学家和因果关系哲学家之间也是如此。参与者将参加两个研讨会，其中第一个研讨会将组织发起对生物系统因果关系本质的合作调查，对这些系统行为的科学调查和解释的因果推理的新分析，以及如何更普遍地理解复杂系统中的因果关系的模型。这些合作调查的结果将在第二次研讨会上进行讨论，并发表在《明尼苏达科学哲学研究》上。

Causal reasoning plays a central role in biology and many of the more philosophically oriented disputes in biology, such as disputes about the levels of selection or disagreements about gene determination, are best framed in explicitly causal terms. Most philosophical accounts of causation have been developed on the assumption that the analysis of causes in simple systems will automatically (or "in principle") apply to complex causal systems as well. Many philosophers of biology tend to assume the opposite: they are skeptical that philosophical analysis of highly idealized simple systems can provide a basis for elucidating causality in kinds of complex systems investigated by biologists. This workshop will open up inquiry by exploring the possibility that abstract accounts of causation can help inform analysis of causation in complex systems and that analyzing causation in complex systems can help inform philosophers' understanding of causation more generally. This collaborative project will bring together biologists investigating complex causal systems, philosophers of biology analyzing causal models and experimentation in biology, and philosophers of causation who have developed abstract theories aimed at elucidating the nature of causation and causal reasoning. Given the overlap of interests, one might expect that these researchers would already be in conversation. But the exchange of ideas among these groups is limited, even between philosophers of biology and philosophers of causation. Participants will meet for two workshops, the first of which will is organized to initiate collaborative investigations into the nature of causation in biological systems, new analyses of the causal reasoning underlying the scientific investigation and explanation of the behavior of these systems, and models of how to understand causation in complex systems more generally. The results of these collaborative investigations will be discussed at the second workshop and for publication in Minnesota Studies for Philosophy of Science.