ANNOUNCEMENTS

February 22, 2002. The next topic for the course will be the attempt to understand causation in terms of probabilities. The basic idea is set out in the excerpt by Patrick Suppes, now posted in the Electronic Reserve section. But before reading the Suppes excerpt, I would suggest reading Handout 5, on the distinction between absolute and conditional probabilities (and how to determine these from observed frequencies). Handout 5 can be found in the Handouts section of the website.

February 14, 2002. After today's class, I wrote up a handout on Dretske, to clarify his "opacity" argument against the regularity theory of natural law. I sent the handout to the phil403 listserv; it is also posted on this website in the handouts section. Please read this for Tueday, Feb 19.

January 31, 2002. On Tuesday, February 5, we will complete our discussion of Mackie's “Causes and Conditions”. On Thursday, February 7, we will discuss David Lewis, “The Metalinguistic Theory: Laws of Nature”. This paper is not in the Kim and Sosa anthology; it is on reserve at Daley Library, and on electronic reserve on this website.