Imagine two worlds. In one, causal relations hold stably and reliably; mechanisms and functional dependencies persist across many cases; laws are unchanging. In the second world, by contrast, these things are fragile, holding only intermittently and unpredictably. Just because one thing causes another over there, for example, doesn’t mean that it causes it over here. I claim that much of our world is, as it were, the second world: target relations are fragile. This is especially the case once we move away from the laboratory or from engineered artefacts. I will discuss some of the consequences for science and for philosophy of science.

Coffee, tea, cakes and fruit will be served before the colloquium @ 2 pm.