Weinberger, Naftali (2021) Intervening and Letting Go: On the Adequacy of Equilibrium Causal Models. [Preprint]
This is the latest version of this item.
|
Text
Intervening_and_Letting_Go_R_R_R.pdf - Accepted Version Download (687kB) | Preview |
Abstract
Causal representations are distinguished from non-causal ones by their ability
to predict the results of interventions. This widely-accepted view suggests the following adequacy condition for causal models: a causal model is adequate only if it does not contain variables regarding which it makes systematically false predictions about the results of interventions. Here I argue that this condition should be rejected. For a class of equilibrium systems, there will be two incompatible causal models depending on whether one intervenes upon a certain variable to fix its value, or `lets go' of the variable and allows it to vary. The latter model will fail to predict the result of interventions on the let-go-of
variable. I argue that there is no basis for preferring one of these models to the other, and thus that models failing to predict interventions on particular variables can be just as adequate as those making no such false predictions. This undermines a key argument (Dash, 2003) against relying upon causal models inferred from equilibrium data.
| Export/Citation: | EndNote | BibTeX | Dublin Core | ASCII/Text Citation (Chicago) | HTML Citation | OpenURL |
| Social Networking: |
| Item Type: | Preprint | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Creators: |
|
||||||
| Keywords: | Causation, Causal Modeling, Dynamical Systems | ||||||
| Subjects: | General Issues > Causation General Issues > Models and Idealization |
||||||
| Depositing User: | Mr. Naftali Weinberger | ||||||
| Date Deposited: | 11 Sep 2021 15:31 | ||||||
| Last Modified: | 11 Sep 2021 15:31 | ||||||
| Item ID: | 19558 | ||||||
| Subjects: | General Issues > Causation General Issues > Models and Idealization |
||||||
| Date: | 2021 | ||||||
| URI: | https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/19558 |
Available Versions of this Item
-
Intervening and Letting Go: Understanding Dynamic Causal Models. (deposited 02 May 2021 13:41)
- Intervening and Letting Go: On the Adequacy of Equilibrium Causal Models. (deposited 11 Sep 2021 15:31) [Currently Displayed]
Monthly Views for the past 3 years
Monthly Downloads for the past 3 years
Plum Analytics
Actions (login required)
 |
View Item |
![[feed]](http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/style/images/feed-icon-32x32.png){kind=icon}