Abstract
Probabilistic theories of causation have received relatively little attention. This is understandable, perhaps, since presentations are usually rather technical. But the neglect is unfortunate. The basic idea is quite simple, and very attractive. Moreover, competing theories all have serious problems that have been discussed ad nauseam. This paper is a critical exploration of the two main types of probabilistic theory, represented by Suppes (1970) and Cartwright (1979) on the one hand, and Giere (1980) on the other. I shall explain the theories’ appeal, defend them against some outstanding objections, and improve them. Alas, the probabilistic approach is not without serious flaws of its own. These will be presented too.
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© 1988 D. Reidel Publishing Company
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Davis, W.A. (1988). Probabilistic Theories of Causation. In: Fetzer, J.H. (eds) Probability and Causality. Synthese Library, vol 192. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-3997-4_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-3997-4_6
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