Colloquium: "The Explanatory Nature of Constraints"

Abstract: This talk engages with current philosophical work on constraints and their role in scientific explanation.  In particular, Lange (2018) has suggested that “explanations by constraint are not causal explanations” as they “work not by describing the world’s causal relations” and they “do not reflect causal processes” (p. 30).  In this talk I argue that some constraints in the life sciences are well understood as causal and as providing causal explanations.  After outlining cases from biology and neuroscience, I suggest that these causal constraints are also a helpful way to understand various social structural explanations, which have proved challenging to capture in explanatory frameworks.

The department and the PNP program coordinate regular colloquia, typically on Thursdays at 4pm. These represent a major part of the education experience in the department, and graduate students are expected to attend.