Dear all, A few talk Best wishes, Lucie *Tuesday and 5 min. video - Carl Hoefer - Generic causation in complex, mind-dependent systems* The Center for Philosophy of Science invites you to join us for our Lunch Time Talk. Attend in person, Room 1117 on the 11th floor of the Cathedral of Learning at the University of Pittsburgh or visit our live stream on YouTube at *https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrRp47ZMXD7NXO3a9Gyh2sg <https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrRp47ZMXD7NXO3a9Gyh2sg>*. *LTT: **Carl Hoefer* Visiting Senior Fellow Carl Hoefer discusses his work here at the Center: https://youtu.be/Fk-c1tKMjhs <https://youtu.be/Fk-c1tKMjhs?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR3UcoDtgVe-uhjSEPMYz7LSgBlkO_iVWoag-iLh5I3f9xZj57P15jiJQyM_aem_CYUdO13MOv98o8OX5KVhDg> Tuesday, October 8 @ 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm EDT *Title: Generic causation in complex, mind-dependent systems * *Abstract: *Often, in medicine and social sciences, we are interested finding generic causal facts: facts of the form *X causes Y*, where X and Y are event types rather than specific individual (“token”) events. In these sciences, often we are interested because X is something that is at least partially under our control: e.g., an educational policy that can be implemented, or a public health intervention that can be made. The evidence-based medicine and evidence-based policy movements urge that we base medical and socio-political decisions on high-quality evidence that, ideally, strongly supports statements of this form, *X causes (or X prevents) Y*. It is a presupposition of these movements, and the forms of research they wish to rely on (including RCTs) that such facts about generic causation *exist*; our job is just to uncover them. But might this presupposition be mistaken, in some areas of human endeavor and inquiry? In recent years I have become convinced that this presupposition is indeed mistaken, in at least some contexts that share these characteristics: complexity, strong dependence on initial conditions, and dependence on human behavior. Using examples from the recent covid19 pandemic, I will illustrate the possibility that certain generic causal facts may fail to exist: it is neither correct to assert that *X causes Y, *nor correct to assert *X does not cause Y*. The discussion will bring together ideas from several of my earlier works on causation and on objective chance. This talk will also be available live streamed on: Zoom https://pitt.zoom.us/s/94175053924 and YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrRp47ZMXD7NXO3a9Gyh2sg ALS - Friday,10/11 - Colin Klein - Transformers, Representational Structure, and the Language of Thought The Center for Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh invites you to join us for our 65th Annual Lecture Series Talk. Attend in person in room 1008 in the Cathedral of Learning (10th Floor) or visit our live stream on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrRp47ZMXD7NXO3a9Gyh2sg. *Colin Klein* Australian National University Friday, October 11th @ 3:30 pm - 6:00 pm EDT *Title: Transformers, Representational Structure, and the Language of Thought* *Abstract:* Transformers are an extraordinarily powerful computational architecture, applicable across a range of domains. They are, notably, the computational foundation of contemporary Large Language Models (LLMs). LLMs’ facility with language have led many to draw analogies between LLMs and human cognitive processing. Drawing out the consequences of what seems like an innocuous step—the need for positional encoding of the input to LLMs—I argue that transformers are broad precisely because they have so little built-in representational structure. This naturally raises questions about the need for structured representations and what (if any) advantage they might have over mere representation of structure. I develop this in particular in the context of the contemporary revival of the Language of Thought hypothesis. *A reception with light refreshments will follow the Talk in The Center on the 11th floor from 5-6pm.* *Can’t make it in-person? This talk will available online through the following:* Zoom at https://pitt.zoom.us/s/98186620578 YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrRp47ZMXD7NXO3a9Gyh2sg.