FOR 1063:  Causation, Laws, Dispositions and Explanations at the Interface of Science and Metaphysics

• Subject Area: Humanities
• Term: from 2009 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 61826517

Explanations in various disciplines tend to refer directly or indirectly to causes, laws and dispositions. The explanatory practice thus gives rise to the question of how these issues are related. In our project we will understand these questions at least partly as metaphysical questions. The project is thus part of what has been recently dubbed “Metaphysics of Science”. However, the project is more inclusive insofar as it comprises disciplines that do not fall under the concept of “science”.
Methodologically the project is characterised by the attempt to confront general metaphysical questions concerning causation, laws and dispositions with philosophical accounts of what is going on in the various special disciplines. Firstly, we take it to be a condition of adequacy that general metaphysical accounts of the concepts in question should be able to cope with the explanatory practices of various disciplines. Secondly, we hold that the philosophical theories developed for the special disciplines should reflect more on the various theoretical options available on the more the general level.
While most projects in the metaphysics of science tradition have focussed on the physical sciences we try to develop accounts of causation, laws, dispositions and explanation that, furthermore, take into account the explanatory practices in medicine, in the historical sciences and in law.

• DFG Programme: Research Units

Projects

• Ceteris-Paribus-Bedingungen und Makro-Gesetze (Applicant Hüttemann, Andreas )
• Die kausale und explanatorische Relevanz von Abwesenheiten (Applicant Schurz, Gerhard )
• Dispositionen, Kausalität und Modalität (Applicant Hüttemann, Andreas )
• Erklärungen, Gesetze, Mechanismen und Mikrofundierung in den Sozialwissenschaften (Applicant Scholz, Oliver R. )
• Kausalität im Recht (Applicant Stepanians, Markus )
• Kausalität und Erklärung komplexer biologischer Systeme (Applicant Hüttemann, Andreas )
• Krankheitsdispositonen, Krankheitsursachen und Krankheitsentitäten: Eine wissenschaftstheoretische Analyse und Rekonstruktion der Struktur der medizinischen Krankheitslehre (Applicant Hucklenbroich, Peter )
• Möglichkeiten und Methoden der Wissenschaftsmetaphysik (Applicant Scholz, Oliver R. )
• Theorie der Kausalität und ihre empirischen Anwendungen (Applicant Schurz, Gerhard )
• Zentralprojekt (Applicant Hüttemann, Andreas )

• Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Andreas Hüttemann