PHI 31 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Thought Experiment
Document Summary
If c causes e in any individual in u, then if we made them all have +c, the frequency of +e should go up (compared to u), unless everyone in u already had +c. Suppose we made every member of u have -c. Suppose we could make every member of u have +c. If c causes e in any individuals in u, then if we made them all have -c, the frequency of +e should go down (compared to u), unless everyone already had -c. Ef: effectiveness of causal factors: ability of a cause to bring about an effect. Effectiveness of a causal factor is a difference in probabilities: Effectiveness for causes is analogous to strength for correlation. Ef(c,e) ranged from -1 to +1, just like strength of correlation. Correlation is symmetrical, while causation is asymmetrical. Causation is an issue of hypothetical populations (x,k) Hypothetical: counterfactual conditions: if +c were to occur, then +e would occur.
