Bert Leuridan
Ghent University, Belgium
Academic Year 2010-11
The Causal Structure of Scientific Theories and the Nature of Intertheoretic Relations

Bert Leuridan is a Post-doctoral Fellow of the Fund for Scientific Research – Flanders and a member of the Centre for Logic and Philosophy of Science (Ghent University, Belgium).

Bert Leuridan’s research mainly focuses on laws of nature and causality in the special sciences, with a special interest in both mechanisms and causal Bayes nets. During his stay at the Center, he will tackle two questions. First, how can scientific theories be represented by means of causal Bayes nets? Second, could this help us – and if so, how – to get a grip on intertheoretic relations (more specifically, reduction)?

May 2012

Bert has organized a conference on Causality and Explanation in the Science (CaEitS2011, September 2011, Ghent University). Together with Erik Weber, he finished a special issue of Theoria with contributed papers of the conference; another special special issue, this time in Erkenntnis, is under construction. During the past year and a half, Bert published a paper with Kareem Khalifa and José Diéz on "General Theories of Explanation" (Synthese); a single-authored paper on Craver's "Mutual Manipulability Account of Constitutive Relevance" (BJPS); a paper with Anton Froeyman on "Laws in History and Historiography" (History and Theory); and a paper with Maarten Boudry on Sober's discussion of the "Design Argument" (Philosophy of Science). All these papers were either sown, or have germinated, or have bloomed in the Center for Philosophy of Science; hopefully, none has withered yet.