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A Probabilistic Analysis of Causation

Glynn, Luke (2011) A Probabilistic Analysis of Causation. [Published Article]

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    Abstract

    The starting point in the development of probabilistic analyses of token causation has usually been the naive intuition that, in some relevant sense, a cause raises the probability of its effect. But there are well-known examples both of non-probability-raising causation and of probability-raising non-causation. Sophisticated extant probabilistic analyses treat many such cases correctly, but only at the cost of excluding the possibilities of direct non-probability-raising causation, failures of causal transitivity, action-at-a-distance, prevention, and causation by absence and omission. I show that an examination of the structure of these problem cases suggests a different treatment, one which avoids the costs of extant probabilistic analyses.


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    Item Type: Published Article
    Keywords: Probabilistic Causation; Probability; Causation; Token Causation; Transitivity; Action-At-A-Distance; Prevention; Preemption; Omissions
    Subjects: General Issues > Causation
    General Issues > Determinism/Indeterminism
    Specific Sciences > Probability/Statistics
    Depositing User: Dr. Luke Glynn
    Date Deposited: 08 May 2013 10:22
    Last Modified: 08 May 2013 10:22
    Item ID: 9729
    Publisher: Oxford University Press
    Official URL: http://bjps.oxfordjournals.org/content/62/2/343.fu...
    DOI or Unique Handle.: doi: 10.1093/bjps/axq015
    URI: http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/9729

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