When to expect violations of causal faithfulness and why it matters
Philosophy of Science Supplement (forthcoming)
| Abstract | I present three reasons why philosophers of science should be more concerned about violations of causal faithfulness (CF). In complex evolved systems, mechanisms for maintaining various equilibrium states are highly likely to violate CF. Even when such systems do not precisely violate CF, they may nevertheless generate precisely the same problems for inferring causal structure from probabilistic relationships in data as do genuine CF-violations. Thus, potential CF-violations are particularly germane to experimental science when we rely on probabilistic information to uncover the DAG, rather than already knowing the DAG from which we could predict the right experiments to ‘catch out’ the hidden causal relationships. | |||||||||
| Keywords | causation complexity causal faithfulness | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,631 |
| External links |
  Try with proxy. |
| Through your library | Configure |
Similar books and articlesJiji Zhang & Peter Spirtes (2008). Detection of Unfaithfulness and Robust Causal Inference. Minds and Machines 18 (2).
Simon Prosser (2012). Emergent Causation. Philosophical Studies 159 (1):21-39.
Daniel Hausman & James Woodward (2004). Manipulation and the Causal Markov Condition. Philosophy of Science 71 (5):846-856.
Jiji Zhang (2008). Error Probabilities for Inference of Causal Directions. Synthese 163 (3):409 - 418.
Frederick S. Elett & David P. Ericson (1986). An Analysis of Probabilistic Causation in Dichotomous Structures. Synthese 67 (2):175-193.
Gurol Irzik (1986). Causal Modeling and the Statistical Analysis of Causation. PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1986:12 - 23.
Frederick S. Ellett Jr & David P. Ericson (1986). An Analysis of Probabilistic Causation in Dichotomous Structures. Synthese 67 (2):175 - 193.
Brian Ellis (2000). Causal Laws and Singular Causation. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 61 (2):329-351.
Daniel Steel (2006). Homogeneity, Selection, and the Faithfulness Condition. Minds and Machines 16 (3).
Douglas Ehring (1986). Causal Processes and Causal Interactions. PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1986:24 - 32.
J. Zhang (2013). A Comparison of Three Occam's Razors for Markovian Causal Models. British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 64 (2):423-448.
Jan Lemeire & Dominik Janzing (2013). Replacing Causal Faithfulness with Algorithmic Independence of Conditionals. Minds and Machines 23 (2):227-249.
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2012-07-19Total downloads7 ( #133,305 of 548,969 )Recent downloads (6 months)1 ( #63,511 of 548,969 )How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
