Harinen, Totte (2014) Normal Causes for Normal Effects. In: UNSPECIFIED.

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Abstract

Abstract Halpern and Hitchcock (2014) have used normality considerations in order to provide an analysis of actual causation. Their methodology is that of taking a set of causal scenarios and showing how their account of actual causation accords with typical judgments about those scenarios. Consequently, Halpern and Hitchcock have recently demonstrated that their theory deals with an impressive number of traditional problem cases discussed in the literature. However, in this paper I first show that the way in which Halpern and Hitchcock rule out certain cases of bogus prevention leaves their account susceptible to counterexamples. I then analyze those counterexamples in the light of the observation that, in addition to abnormal causes, people naturally focus on abnormal effects. I then argue that this bias towards abnormal effects has resulted in accounts of actual causation that cannot deal with causal scenarios in which the actual effect is normal.

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Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (UNSPECIFIED)
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Harinen, Totte totte.harinen@kcl.ac.uk
Keywords:	causation, actual causation, causal modeling, abnormality bias
Subjects:	General Issues > Causation
Depositing User:	Totte Harinen
Date Deposited:	11 Nov 2014 20:12
Last Modified:	11 Nov 2014 20:12
Item ID:	11140
Subjects:	General Issues > Causation
Date:	2014
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/11140

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• Normal Causes for Normal Effects. (deposited 10 Nov 2014 16:18)
  • Normal Causes for Normal Effects. (deposited 11 Nov 2014 20:12) [Currently Displayed]

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