Dear ISHers,

Here is a talk announcement that may interest you

Best,
Lucie

Kate Lynch (Melbourne, Australia), (Human) Genetic Causal Reasoning
(Virtual)
October 17th, 2024, 9am-10:30am (French time, UTC+2)


Kate E. Lynch <http://www.katelynch.net/> is a philosopher of science
interested in causation, explanation, and causal reasoning in biology and
medicine. Her work focusses on understanding the nature of causal
relationships investigated by different research methods; and how causal
claims are made and interpreted by scientists, practitioners, media, and
the public. Her work has been featured on ABC News, Triple J, Radio
National, and the LA Times, and was recently awarded the Australian
Association of Philosophy Media Prize (2024).


*Abstract*
When asked why something occurred, we tend to present just one, or at most
a few, causes as the explanation. This is despite the fact that many
phenomena are produced by a complex combination of causes. This is no
better illustrated than the pursuit of explanations for human behaviour
that cite genetic causes such as the ‘gay gene’, ‘criminal gene’ or ‘genes
for intelligence’. Often, genes are given special explanatory status for
human behaviour, personality and physiology.
Philosophers have both tried to explain and justify why some causes appear
more important than others across contexts. Proposed factors include the
specificity and invariance of causal relationships, abnormality of the
cause, and the perceived valence of both the cause and the effect. In
Psychology and the Social Sciences genetic causation is understood through
a framework of causal reasoning biases related to essentialistic thinking.
In this talk I show how the genetic essentialist framework maps to many of
the philosophical features proposed to explain causal selection more
generally. I will also share some preliminary findings about the extent of
genetic essentialist biases in Australian Print media – identified using
corpus analysis and machine learning classification.

*Zoom link:*
https://u-bordeaux-fr.zoom.us/j/89962069975?pwd=LvPXI6nzKvvcUBtJkiiIqUD7oFsfNM.1
<https://www.google.com/url?q=https://u-bordeaux-fr.zoom.us/j/89962069975?pwd%3DLvPXI6nzKvvcUBtJkiiIqUD7oFsfNM.1&sa=D&source=calendar&usd=2&usg=AOvVaw3P65fNvfd6zQNAisrX5ndr>

*Information:*
https://www.philinbiomed.org/event/kate-lynch/

Sincerely,

Thomas Pradeu
CNRS Research Director in Philosophy of Science
Immunology Unit ImmunoConcEpT, UMR5164, CNRS & University of Bordeaux
Presidential Fellow, Chapman University, CA, USA
Team Leader Conceptual Biology and Medicine Team
<https://immunoconcept.cnrs.fr/conceptual-biology-medicine/>
Coordinator of the Philosophy in Biology and Medicine Network
<https://www.philinbiomed.org/> (PhilInBioMed)