Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T16:55:18.754Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Probabilistic Explanation and Probabilistic Causality

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2022

Joseph F. Hanna
Joseph F. Hanna*
Affiliation:
Michigan State University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The subject of this panel discussion is probabilistic explanation. However, I would like to broaden the scope of my remarks to include the subject of probabilistic causality as well. For, I will argue in this paper that recent attempts to develop a theory of objective probabilistic causality are vulnerable to the same criticisms that in a previous paper I have advanced against the theories of objective probabilistic explanation proposed by Salmon and Fetzer.

During the past decade or so, both Salmon and Fetzer have written widely on the subject of probabilistic explanation, - and the Statistical-Relevance and Causal-Relevance models for which they are, respectively, well known have been extensively discussed in the literature. During this same period, Patrick Suppes' (1970) monograph has been a common reference point for discussions of probabilistic causality (though as Salmon points out in a recent article , Suppea' account shares many features with earlier accounts of causality proposed by Good and Reichenbach).

Type
Part IV. Probabilistic Explanation
Information
PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association , Volume 1982 , Issue 2: Volume Two: Symposia and Invited Papers 1982 , 1982 , pp. 181 - 193
Copyright
Copyright © 1983 Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

1

I wish to thank James Fetzer and Paul Humphreys for the lively correspondence and exchange of ideas that took place during the months preceeding this panel discussion. It helped greatly to clarify my thinking on the subjects of probabilistic explanation and probabilistic causality.

References

Fetzer, J.H. (1974). “A Single Case Propensity Theory of Explanation.” Synthese 28: 171-198.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fetzer, J.H. (1981). “Probability and Explanation.” Synthese 48: 371-408.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Good, I.J. (1961). “A Causal Calculus I- II.” The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 11, 12: 305-318, 43-51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hanna, J.F. (1981). “Single Case Propensities and the Explanation of Particular Events.” Synthese 48: 409-436.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hempel, C.G. (1965). Aspects of Scientific Explanation and other Essays in the Philosophy of Science. New York: The Free Press.Google Scholar
Humphreys, P.W. (1980). “Cutting the Causal Chain.” Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 61: 305-314.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Humphreys, P.W. (1981). “Aleatory Explanations.” Synthese 48: 225-232.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reiehenbach, H. (1956). The Direction of Time. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Rescher, N. (1963). “Discrete State Systems, Markov Chains, and Problems in the Theory of Scientific Explanation and Prediction.” Philosophy of Science 30: 325-345.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Salmon, W.C. (1971). Statistical Explanation and Statistical Relevance. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Salmon, W.C. (1980). “Probabilistic Causality.” Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 61: 50-74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Suppes, P., (1970). A Probabilistic Theory of Causality. Amsterdam: North Holland.Google Scholar