SMS 2025 Summer School
24 - 27 June 2025, held virtually
Overall Event Description
The SMS will host a summer school this summer from June 24th to June 27th over Zoom. We are pleased to announce that there will be two streams available this year:
(A) Daniel Kostic (Polish Academy of Sciences) and James Woodward (University of Pittsburgh)will focus on Exploring the Roles of Topology and Dynamics in Network Based Explanations
(June 24-25, 10:00-1:00 EST).
(B) Jacqueline Sullivan (Western University) and Muhammad Ali Khalidi (The Graduate Center, CUNY) will focus on Psychiatric Kinds and Natural Kinds
(June 26-27, 9:00-12:00 EST).
Each stream consists of two three-hour workshops, each designed to introduce participants to the state of play in the given subdiscipline. See below for more information about each stream.
Application & Registration Information
In order to apply, please submit a c.v. to Ken Aizawa (ken.aizawa@gmail.com) and include which stream(s) you would like to attend. There is no official deadline for applications, but attendance will be capped at 20 participants.
A registration fee of $25 per stream ($25 for one stream; $50 for both) is required, which will be used to partially offset expenses. Accepted applicants will be asked to submit their registration fees by June 15, 2025, via our Registration Page.
Please direct inquiries to Jenn McDonald (jc2266@columbia.edu) and Ken Aizawa (ken.aizawa@gmail.com).
Exploring the Roles of Topology and Dynamics in Network Based Explanations
w/Daniel Kostic & James Woodward
Session Times:
June 24th, 10:00 am - 1:00 pm EST
June 25th, 10:00 am - 1:00 pm EST
Expected Readings:
• Kostić, D. (2024). “On the Role of Erotetic Constraints in Non-causal Explanations”. Philosophy of Science, 91(5), 1078–1088. doi:10.1017/psa.2023.114
• Kostić, D. (2022). “Topological Explanations, an Opinionated Appraisal.” In Lawler, I., Shech, E. and Khalifa, K. (eds): Scientific Understanding and Representation: Mathematical Modeling in the Life and Physical Sciences, Routledge, pp. 96-115. DOI: 10.4324/9781003202905-9.
• Kostić, D. and Khalifa, K. (2021) “The Directionality of Topological Explanations.” Synthese, 199, 14143–14165 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-021-03414-y.
• Kostić, D. (2020). “General Theory of Topological Explanations and Explanatory Asymmetry”. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 375: 20190321.
• Woodward, J. (2025). Networks, dynamics and explanation. Synthese, 205(5), 1-28.
• Woodward, J. (2021) "Flagpoles Anyone? Causal and Explanatory Asymmetries” Theoria" pp 1-52.
• Woodward, J. (2018) “Some Varieties of Non-Causal Explanation”, In Explanation Beyond Causation ed. Juha Saatsi and Alex Reutlinger. Oxford University Press, pp 117-137.
• Woodward, J., & Hitchcock, C. (2003). Explanatory generalizations, part I: A counterfactual account. Noûs, 37(1), 1-24.
Additional Readings:
• Kostić, D. and Khalifa, K. (2022). "Decoupling Topological Explanations from Mechanisms.” Philosophy of Science, 90(2), 245-268.
• Lange, M. (2018). "A reply to Craver and Povich on the directionality of distinctively mathematical explanations", Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science 67: 85-88.
• Ross, L. (2021). "Distinguishing Topological and Causal Explanation. Synthese 98: 9803–9820.
Psychiatric Kinds & Natural Kinds
w/Jacqueline Sullivan & Muhammad Ali Khalidi
Session Times:
June 26th, 9:00 am - 12:00 pm EST
June 27th, 9:00 am - 12:00 pm EST
Expected Readings:
June 26 - Led by Muhammad Ali Khalidi
Khalidi, M. (2023) Natural Kinds. Cambridge University Press.
Bebee, Helen & Nigal Sabbarton-Leary. (2010) "Are Psychiatric Kinds Real?" . European Journal of Analytic Philosophy Vol. 6, No. 1.
June 27 - Led by Jacqueline Sullivan
Hyman SE, Fenton WS. Medicine. What are the right targets for psychopharmacology? Science. 2003 Jan 17;299(5605):350-1.
Sullivan, J.A. (2014) "Stabilizing Mental Disorders: Prospects & Problems" in Classifying Psychopathology: Mental Kinds & Natural Kinds, Harold Kincaid & Jacqueline Sullivan, eds. MIT Press.
Sullivan, J.A. (2017) "Coordinated Pluralism as a Means to Facilitate Integrative Taxonomies of Cognition", Philosophical Explorations 20 (2):129-145.