*Please distribute to others who may be interested...*
You are hereby invited to the 3rd weekly seminar in our seventh interdisciplinary series on Evolution, Complexity and Cognition<http://ecco.vub.ac.be/?q=node/108>(ECCO). *Time*: Friday, Nov. 12, 14:00-16:00 p.m (note: this year, all seminars take place on Fridays, 14-16 pm, unless announced otherwise) *Place*: Room B 0.036 (building B, level 0, close to the human sciences computer rooms), on the VUB Campus Etterbeek (Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussels), in collaboration with MOSI. Coffee available. Free entrance: everybody welcome! ------------------------------ * A Note on the Categorical Nature of Causation *Karin Verelst <http://homepages.ulb.ac.be/%7Ekverelst/> (CLEA, VUB) * Abstract* Discussions on causality abound, but rare are the attempts at precise definition of what is meant. The reason might be that the concept in itself is intrinsically pluriform, but even then theories enclosing some kind of causation should exhibit certain common structural characteristics, otherwise the use of the common term would be absolutely pointless. I show that a fairly straightforward categorical characterization of causation is possible when one takes both the history of the concept and Meyerson’s careful analysis of the relation between causation and time into account. Historically it has been seen (by Aristotle) that a causal relation between events is never simply straightforward, but always implies — explicitly or not — a connection between a universal (global) and a particular (local) level. This is why the idea of cause can be linked to the idea of lawfulness. But there is a difference between a law and a cause because of the asymmetry between space and time: space is actual everywhere but time only at this moment. Laws define the identical, but identity as well is only unproblematic at this moment. Meyerson shows that causality therefore somehow implies the conservation of identity through time. The idea of conservation is essential here. Now when causal connections are interpreted as order relations (as is the case in, e.g., relativistic theories), then causation appears as the Galois adjoint to identity, and causality will be aequivalent to the idea of physical law. This allows to formally characterise causality in this type of theories, without having to “explain” it any further. Given the functoriality of the derivative and the interconnection between symmetry and conservation, this approach might be generalisable to other physically viable notions of causation through the use of Noether’s Theorem. *References* [1] F. Borceux, Handbook of Categorical Algebra I, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1994. [2] E. Meyerson, Identit´e et R´ealit´e, F´elix Alcan, Paris, 1932. [3] E. Noether, “Invariante Variationsprobleme”, Nachr. d. K¨onig. Gesellsch. d. Wiss. zu G¨ottingen, Math-phys. Klasse, pp. 235–257, 1918. [4] K. Verelst, “On what Ontology Is and not-Is”, Foundations of Science, 13, 3, 2008. ------------------------------ *Upcoming Seminars* *Nov. 19* *academic holiday*:* no seminar* *Nov. 26* Jon Echanove (AoEC <http://www.aoec.cn.com/>, China) *Uncertainty and Personal Development* <http://ecco.vub.ac.be/?q=node/133> *Dec. 3* Clément Vidal <http://clement.vidal.philosophons.com/> (ECCO, VUB) *Black Holes as Attractors for Intelligent Civilizations*<http://ecco.vub.ac.be/?q=node/132> *Dec. 8 (Wednesday) *Frank Tipler <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_J._Tipler> (Tulane University) The ultimate future - Of the Universe, of Computers, and of Humanity *Dec 10* Nathalie Gontier <http://vub.academia.edu/NathalieGontier> (CLWF, VUB) *Identifying the units, levels and mechanisms of evolution: an epistemological approach* *Dec. 17* Bertin Marten<http://books.google.be/books?id=r7CbVtlfc0sC&printsec=frontcover&dq=bertin-martens&source=bl&ots=Amuu-Z3p_8&sig=oD4mkFDgiTLlVLJo5xe7zUU2RqU&hl=en&ei=7D7ATKDFLZm8jAe8xMSUCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CC8Q6AEwBw>s (European Commission) *Economic exchange as a cognitive transmission channel in human societies* *Jan 14* Chris Exton <http://www.csis.ul.ie/staff/chrisexton/> (University of Limerick) *Crowd sourcing **Jan 21* Marco Fenici <http://unisi.academia.edu/MarcoFenici> (University of Siena) *Children's Understanding of Others' Minds: Empirical Research and Challenges Ahead* * * More info about the ECCO seminar program: http://ecco.vub.ac.be/?q=node/108
