Causal Relationships and Generalizations in Human Life and Mind Sciences
Research in fields such as medicine, psychology, behavioral genetics, epidemiology, and the social sciences routinely generate causal and statistical generalizations— for example, about the impact of various risk factors and public interventions on disease and behaviour, about social group differences. Yet these fields deal with highly complex and context-sensitive phenomena. Consequently, such generalizations may be less general than they are often hoped to be, and interpreted to be by broader audiences. This workshop brings together philosophers and empirical researchers to examine, on the one hand, the nature and scope of generalizations in the human life and mind sciences and, on the other, how different linguistic tools used to communicate them—such as generics—may systematically lead to misleading public understanding of scientific claims.
Speakers:
Susan Gelman (University of Michigan)
Carl Hoefer (ICREA/University of Barcelona)
Donal Khosrowi (Leibniz University Hannover)
Riin Kõiv (University of Barcelona)
Dimitra Lazaridou-Chatzigoga (University of East Anglia)
Uwe Peters (Utrecht University)
Elena Popa (University of Seville)
Davide Serpico (University of Milan)
PROGRAMME
WEDNESDAY, 21 JANUARY
15:00 – 16:20 Davide Serpico – Generalizations that Matter: Causation, Generalizations and Value-Laden Categories in Medicine
16.20 – 16.50 Coffee break
16:50 – 18:10 Elena Popa – Mechanisms and ontological foundations for biopsychosocial causation
THURSDAY, 22 JANUARY
10:00 – 11:20 Susan Gelman – Scientists communicate their findings with generic language: incentives and consequences of a common practice
11.20 – 11.50 Coffee break
11:50 – 13:10 Uwe Peters – Generics in Science Communication: Misaligned Interpretations Across Laypeople, Scientists, and Large Language Models
13:10 – 15:00 Lunch break
15:00 – 16:20 Dimitra Lazaridou-Chatzigoga – Communicating generalisations: a cross-linguistic view
16.20 – 16.50 Coffee break
16:50 – 18:10 Riin Kõiv – Does linking language matter? Genetic determinism, essentialism and the interpretation of reports of genetics findings
19.30-21.30 Workshop dinner
FRIDAY, 23 JANUARY
10:00 – 11:20 Carl Hoefer – Generic causation in highly complex systems: Are some generic-causal questions unanswerable?
11.20 – 11.50 Coffee break
11:50 – 13:10 Donal Khosrowi – Should researchers pursue and communicate causal generalizations in the life and social sciences?
Organisers (BIAP members)
Federico Cella (University of Barcelona)
José Díez (University of Barcelona)
Manuel García-Carpintero (University of Barcelona)
Carl Hoefer (ICREA-University of Barcelona)
Riin Kõiv (University of Barcelona)
Download the poster in PDF HERE.
Download the book of abstracts in PDF HERE.
Registration for this event is mandatory. If you are interested in attending, please register by the 19th of January HERE.
All enquiries should be addressed at riin.koiv@ub.edu and f.cella@outlook.com.
This event has received financial support from grant CEX2021-001169-M (funded by MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033), as well as from the Department and the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Barcelona.
