Bringing scientific insight to the causes of individual events
Bringing scientific insight to the causes of individual events
- December 18, 2025
- UC Irvine logic and philosopher of science Lauren Ross part of John Templeton Foundation-funded research team exploring token causation
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Lauren Ross, UC Irvine logic & philosophy of science Dean's Professor and Chancellor's Fellow, has received research funding from the John Templeton Foundation to study token causality, which concerns explanations for specific events.
“This research project merges the fields of computing, psychology, and philosophy to provide an account of token causation,’’ she says. “While causal reasoning is found across diverse contexts, token causation refers to reasoning about single events or outcomes. The methods developed in this project will support practical applications in medicine, law, biology, and environmental sciences, and will support advances in understandings of blame and moral responsibility.”
Ross will be working with an interdisciplinary team of researchers at the Stevens Institute of Technology and University College London to develop principled ways to explain these events using new theories, algorithms and experiments.
Funding for this work began in September and runs through August 2028.
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