PHI 1101 Lecture 21: March 27th, 2018

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Philosophy
• Course: PHI 1101
• Professor: Vincent Bergeron

Document Summary

First thing to do is to look for a correlation between a and b. Positive correlation when the presence of b is more likely when given the presence of a. Negative correlation when the presence of b is less likely when given the presence of a. Correlation is not enough to mean causation. A very strong correlation is not enough to determine causation. Even if we assume there is a causal relationship between a and b, a correlation may get things backwards. Correlations can occur by a common cause being responsible for the correlation. What more do you need? (2 things) Try to discover more basic causes or mechanisms. People are quick to go from personal experiences to leap to an inference/conclusion that there is a causal mechanism at work. This happened after that, so that caused this. Thinking that there is only one, or one main, cause to something. 4 questions on the exam about chapter 6.