MA Thesis Defense: Alex Beard

Absence Causation in Mechanistic Explanation
Alexander Beard

Monday June 19th 2017 @ 1:00pm in MHB–915

Abstract: Instances of absence causation are said to occur when an absence serves as the cause of an effect. Such cases have proven problematic for conceptions of causality, especially those that take causation to be a production-like relation. This thesis details the problem of absence causation and situates it within the purview of mechanistic explanation. I aim to solve the problem and suggest a decompositional approach to absences that reveals the actual source of production in cases of supposed absence causation. I maintain that absences are causally inert, as they are states rather than events, and so not the proper relatum of the causal relation. The prevalence with which cases of absence causation appear in explanatory models and texts suggests a functional role for their inclusion. I argue that representing causal absences has heuristic value, and that their inclusion in explanations is sometimes a means by which to fulfill various epistemic norms.

Oral defenses are open to the public. For a draft copy of the thesis, please contact Alex <alexander.beard@zoho.com> directly.

MA Thesis Defense: Mitch Kaufman

Direct versus Indirect Correspondence: Dissolving the Distinction
Mitch Kaufman**

Monday February 27th 2017 @ 10:00am in MHB–915

Abstract: Assertions are sentences uttered with illocutionary force and governed by alethic norms. For austere realists like Terence Horgan, the alethic norms governing those assertions constituted by terms that denote or designate entities not included in the correct ontology are so-called ‘indirect correspondence standards’. In this thesis, I argue that, within the ontological framework of blobjectivism, there is a state of affairs consisting of the blobject instantiating a property for every true assertion governed by indirect correspondence standards. Indirect correspondence standards for truth thus accord with Bertrand Russell’s well-known formulation of the correspondence theory of truth. Any true assertion governed by indirect correspondence standards is true in virtue of its being paraphrasable by a true assertion which is governed by direct correspondence standards.

Oral defenses are open to the public. For a draft copy of the thesis, please contact Mitch <kaufman.mitch@gmail.com> directly.

** nb: Mitch will be conducting his defense via Skype from the UK.