This is the second workshop of a project organized by Ken Waters, Jim Woodward, and Mike Travisano. The first workshop brought together a small group of biologists, philosophers working in the general area of causation, and philosophers of biology to discuss issues involving causal concepts in biology. Participants prepared for the first meeting by reading classic philosophical works on causation. Biologists and philosophers made presentations describing causal phenomena or issues in their research areas that called for careful causal analysis.
The second workshop will be devoted to discussing papers written by participants of the first workshop about the nature of causation and causal reasoning in biological sciences. Participants, including new graduate student and recent PhD participants, will prepare for the second workshop by reading these papers in advance. Discussion of individual papers will be initiated by a five-minute reflection by the author about how their paper relates to others in the workshop and a ten-minute commentary on the paper (by another participant). New graduate student and recent PhD participants will be expected to give at least one and possibly more commentaries. Papers will be revised in light of workshop discussion and submitted to Minnesota Studies for the Philosophy of Science.”
