Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T21:46:30.959Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Causal Independence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Igal Kvart
Igal Kvart*
Affiliation:
Philosophy Department Hebrew University
*
†Send reprint requests to the author, Philosophy Department, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In Kvart (1991a), I discussed the analysis of causal relevance presented in A Theory of Counterfactuals (1986) (and first in 1975). I explained there in what respect the notion captured by the analysis of Kvart (1986) is a mere approximation to the requisite notion of causal relevance. In this paper I present another analysis of causal relevance, devoid of the shortcoming of its predecessor.

The present analysis of causal relevance is, again, grounded in a chancelike notion of objective probability. The correlative notion of causal independence is analyzed as holding in case there is a so-called causal impact series, which is defined here. The basic notions used for this analysis are the notion of a differentiator, which upsets an equiprobability case, and that of a blocker, which restores it.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 61 , Issue 1 , March 1994 , pp. 96 - 114
Copyright
Copyright © 1994 by the Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Gibbard, A. and Harper, W. (1981), “Counterfactuals and Two Kinds of Expected Utility”, in Harper, W., Stalnaker, R., and Pearce, G. (eds.), Ifs: Conditionals, Beliefs, Decision, Chance and Time. Dordrecht: Reidel, pp. 153–192.Google Scholar
Hacking, I. (1965), The Logic of Statistical Inference. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9781316534960CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kvart, I. (1975), “Counterfactuals”, Ph.D. dissertation, microfilm; University of Michigan.Google Scholar
Kvart, I. (1986), A Theory of Counterfactuals. Indianapolis: Hackett.Google Scholar
Kvart, I. (1991a), “Counterfactuals and Causal Relevance”, Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 72: 314–337.10.1111/j.1468-0114.1991.tb00323.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kvart, I. (1991b), “Transitivity and Preemption of Causal Relevance”, Philosophical Studies 64: 125–160.10.1007/BF00404826CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kvart, I. (1992), “Counterfactuals”, Erkenntnis 36: 1–41.10.1007/BF00217472CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kvart, I. (1993), A Theory of Probabilistic Causation. Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Kvart, I. (1994), “Counterfactuals Ambiguities, True Premises and Knowledge”, Synthese 100. In press.10.1007/BF01063923CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kvart, I. (Forthcoming), “Overall Positive Causal Impact”, Canadian Journal of Philosophy.Google Scholar
Lewis, D. (1981), “A Subjectivist Guide to Objective Chance”, in Harper, W., Stalnaker, R., and Pearce, G. (eds.), Ifs: Conditionals, Beliefs, Decision, Chance and Time. Dordrecht: Reidel, pp. 267–298.Google Scholar
Mellor, H. (1971), The Matter of Chance. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Popper, K. (1961), The Logic of Scientific Discovery. New York: Science Edition.Google Scholar
Salmon, W. (1984), Scientific Explanation and the Causal Structure of the World. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Skyrms, B. (1980), Causal Necessity: A Pragmatic Investigation of the Necessity of Laws. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar