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A difference-making account of causation

Pietsch, Wolfgang (2016) A difference-making account of causation. In: UNSPECIFIED.

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Abstract

A difference-making account of causality is proposed that is based on a counterfactual definition, but differs from traditional counterfactual approaches to causation in a number of crucial respects: (i) it introduces a notion of causal irrelevance; (ii) it evaluates the truth-value of counterfactual statements in terms of difference-making; (iii) it renders causal statements background-dependent. On the basis of the fundamental notions 'causal relevance' and 'causal irrelevance', further causal concepts are defined including causal factors, alternative causes, and importantly inus-conditions. Problems and advantages of the proposed account are discussed. Finally, it is shown how the account can shed new light on three classic problems in epistemology, the problem of induction, the logic of analogy, and the framing of eliminative induction.


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Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item (UNSPECIFIED)
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Pietsch, Wolfgangpietsch@cvl-a.tum.de
Keywords: causation, induction, analogy, counterfactuals, method of difference, causal irrelevance
Subjects: General Issues > Causation
Specific Sciences > Artificial Intelligence
General Issues > Confirmation/Induction
General Issues > Experimentation
General Issues > Formal Learning Theory
Specific Sciences > Probability/Statistics
Depositing User: Wolfgang Pietsch
Date Deposited: 19 Feb 2016 00:59
Last Modified: 19 Feb 2016 00:59
Item ID: 11913
Subjects: General Issues > Causation
Specific Sciences > Artificial Intelligence
General Issues > Confirmation/Induction
General Issues > Experimentation
General Issues > Formal Learning Theory
Specific Sciences > Probability/Statistics
Date: 17 February 2016
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/11913

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