What if? So what!

Interdisciplinary approaches to counterfactual reasoning

17-20 December 2007

Faculty of Philosophy

Erasmus University Rotterdam

Monday 17th  (Room T3-20)
12h00-13h45 Registration
13h45-14h00 Opening
14h00-15h00 D. Hilton Changing the course of events: Counterfactual reasoning and explanation
15h00-15h30 Coffee break
15h30-16h30 S. Smets A dynamic approach to conditionals
16h30-17h00 Coffee break
17h00-18h00 D. Atkinson What if there were no atoms?
19h00-21h00 Opening reception at Het Gelagh, Witte de Withstraat 40b


Tuesday 18th  (Room T3-20)
09h00-10h30
- J. Senos and T. Garcia-Marques Counterfactual thinking and causal reasoning: an integrative model
- P. Chassy and D. Hilton Causality and responsibility judgments in temporal chains as a function of outcome severity and order of presentation
- C. Walsh and S. Sloman Attributions of Causation and Prevention

10h30-11h00 Coffee break

11h00-12h30
- K. Demiddele No Future Adams Pairs: applying the global/local conditional probability distinction
- H. Lycke If Rescher were mistaken about counterfactuals, his theory of counterfactual reasoning might not be in need of improvement
- T. De Mey How to do things with thoughts: A normative theory of thought experiments

12h30-14h00 Lunch break
14h00-15h00 S. Beck Developments in children's ability to relate counterfactual and actual worlds
15h00-15h30 Coffee break
15h30-16h30 J. Halpern Plausibility measures: A uniform approach to counterfactual reasoning, default reasoning, and belief change
16h30-17h00 Coffee break
17h00-18h00 F.A. Muller Review of Subjunctive Reasoning in the Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics


Wednesday 19th  (Room T3-20)
09h00-10h30
- M. Ramachandran Conditionals, Non-monoticity, and Modus Ponens
- J.W. Romeijn and Igor Douven Updating on Conditionals
- D. Batens Counterfactual Reasoning

10h30-11h00 Coffee break

11h00-12h30
- S. Barker Possible Worlds, Law-Violation, and Counterfactual Embedding
- G. Bjornsson Inverting the standard picture of counterfactual thinking
- G. Mras Modalities and Future Contingencies

12h30-14h00 Lunch break
14h00-15h00 D. Mandel Counterfactuals and Causal Explanation: From Early Theoretical Views to New Frontiers
15h00-15h30 Coffee break
15h30-16h30 H. Leitgeb A probabilistic semantics for counterfactuals

16h30-17h00 Coffee break
17h00-18h00 C. Hitchcock Counterfactual availability and causal judgment
19h00-23h00 Dinner at Belgisch Biercafe Boudewijn, Nieuwe Binnenweg 53a-53b


Thursday 20th  (Morning: Room T3-21; Afternoon: Room T3-20)
09h00-10h30
- L. De Vreese What if...smoking does not 'cause' lung cancer? About counterfactuals and biomedicine
- J. Li Causation and Counterfactuals in Medical Decision-Making: Philosophical, Artificial Intelligence and Psychological Perspectives on Mapping Theory onto Application
- N. Nivelle and G. Brone Counterfactual conditionals in argumentative legal discourse: a cognitive linguistic analysis

10h30-11h00 Coffee break

11h00-12h30
- F. Russo What if explanation didn't need counterfactuals?
- P. Yliloski Constitutive counterfactuals and explanation
- E. Weber The Limits of Thought Experiments in Historiography

12h30-14h00 Lunch break
14h00-15h00 J. Reiss Counterfactuals, Thought Experiments and Singular Causal Inference in Historical Policy Analysis
15h00-15h30 Coffee break
15h30-16h30 Round table
16h30-19h00 Closing reception at Faculty of Philosophy, H5 (campus Woudestein)