[Critical-Realism] Call for papers, The Monist

["Mervyn Hartwig" <mh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi all

Gideon Calder has asked me to post the following, saying that the
forthcoming special issues of The Monist could really do with some critical
realist contributions. I agree. 

Mervyn

> 
> The Monist invites submissions on the following topics:
> 
>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------
> (1) Singular Causation
> Deadline for submissions: January 31, 2008 Advisory Editor: Michael 
> Moore (University of Illinois)
<micmoore@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> 
> Whether causation is a genuine relation between particular events has 
> been a much disputed matter since David Hume. The post-Humean answers 
> have generally been in the negative, conceiving singular causal 
> statements - like: 'the striking of the match caused it to ignite' - 
> in terms of some dependence on more basic truths about laws connecting 
> types (e.g., 'striking matches causes them to ignite'). Such more 
> basic truths may be cast in terms of mere uniformities of nature or 
> primitive nomic relations between universals, or in terms of 
> counterfactual or probabilistic dependence. Standardly it is some 
> general relation between types of events that is regarded as basic 
> (although the counterfactual theories can be ambiguous on
this).
> 
> Within the past several decades, however, this post-Humean orthodoxy 
> has been challenged by the proposal of singularist theories that 
> regard causation as first and foremost a relation between particular 
> events. Only secondarily (if at all) is it a matter of uniformities, 
> nomic sufficiency, or counterfactual or probabilistic dependence. The 
> new singularist theories, unlike their predecessors, have not been 
> merely negative in their rejection of Hume; nor have they merely 
> pronounced causation to be an 'unanalyzable primitive.' Rather, they 
> have proposed various ideas about what the causal relation might be, 
> in terms of energy transfer, causal processes, trope persistence, and 
> the like. The topic to be addressed is the viability of such 
> singularist theories of causation. Contributors are invited either to 
> defend or to criticize such theories, or to propose new
>alternatives.

> (2) Powers
> Deadline for submissions: October 31, 2009 Advisory Editor: Neil 
> Williams (University at Buffalo)
<new@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> 
> A sewing needle is swiped across a bar magnet, then pushed through a 
> piece of cork and dropped into a glass of water. The needle will point 
> immediately to the nearest pole.  A female moth releases a small trace 
> of sex pheromone; immediately males of the species up to two miles 
> away will be attracted to her.  The evidence for such causal powers is 
> all around us.  And as is shown in the response to the work of authors 
> such as George Molnar and C. B.  Martin, the thought that objects 
> might be inherently powerful is on the rise.  What is the nature of 
> such causal powers?  How are they to be characterised?  What place do 
> non-powers have within power-based ontologies?  To what extent can 
> powers be explanatory?  Can powers exist entirely ungrounded?  
> Contributions are invited addressing these and connected issues about 
> the role and nature of powers.




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