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Common-causes are not common common-causes

Hofer-Szabó, Gábor and Redei, Miklos and Szabo, Laszlo E. (2001) Common-causes are not common common-causes. [Preprint]

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Abstract

A condition is formulated in terms of the probabilities of two pairs of correlated events in a classical probability space which is necessary for the two correlations to have a single (Reichenbachian) common-cause and it is shown that there exists pairs of correlated events probabilities of which violate the necessary condition. It is concluded that different correlations do not in general have a common common-cause. It is also shown that this conclusion remains valid even if one weakens slightly Reichenbach's definition of common-cause. The significance of the difference between common-causes and common common-causes is emphasized from the perspective of Reichenbach's Common Cause Principle.


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Item Type: Preprint
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Hofer-Szabó, Gáborgsz@szig.hu
Redei, Miklos
Szabo, Laszlo E.
Keywords: Probabilistic causation, common cause
Subjects: General Issues > Causation
Depositing User: Miklos Redei
Date Deposited: 08 Aug 2001
Last Modified: 27 Jun 2014 21:48
Item ID: 353
Subjects: General Issues > Causation
Date: August 2001
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/353

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