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Probabilistic Causality and the Question of Transitivity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Ellery Eells  and
Elliott Sober
Elliott Sober
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy University of Wisconsin-Madison
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Abstract

After clarifying the probabilistic conception of causality suggested by Good (1961–2), Suppes (1970), Cartwright (1979), and Skyrms (1980), we prove a sufficient condition for transitivity of causal chains. The bearing of these considerations on the units of selection problem in evolutionary theory and on the Newcomb paradox in decision theory is then discussed.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 50 , Issue 1 , March 1983 , pp. 35 - 57
Copyright
Copyright © 1983 by the Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

†

Our thanks to Nancy Cartwright, Carter Denniston, and to an anonymous referee of this journal for several useful suggestions. We also wish to thank, respectively, the Graduate School of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the Graduate School of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the National Science Foundation, for financial support.

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