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Causal Modeling: New Directions for Statistical Explanation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Gurol Irzik  and
Eric Meyer
Gurol Irzik
Affiliation:
Division of Science and Mathematics, University of Southern Indiana
Eric Meyer
Affiliation:
Department of History and Philosophy of Science, Indiana University
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Abstract

Causal modeling methods such as path analysis, used in the social and natural sciences, are also highly relevant to philosophical problems of probabilistic causation and statistical explanation. We show how these methods can be effectively used (1) to improve and extend Salmon's S-R basis for statistical explanation, and (2) to repair Cartwright's resolution of Simpson's paradox, clarifying the relationship between statistical and causal claims.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 54 , Issue 4 , December 1987 , pp. 495 - 514
Copyright
Copyright © 1987 by the Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

†

We would like to thank Noretta Koertge and Ron Giere, and especially Nancy Cartwright, for their comments on drafts of this paper.

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