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Full Idea
A cause ought to increase the frequency of the effect, but this fact may not show up in the probabilities if other causes are at work.
Gist of Idea
A cause won't increase the effect frequency if other causes keep interfering
Source
Nancy Cartwright (How the Laws of Physics Lie [1983], 1.1)
Book Ref
Cartwright,Nancy: 'How the Laws of Physics Lie' [OUP 2002], p.23
A Reaction
[She cites Patrick Suppes for this one] Presumably in experimental situations you can weed out the interference, but that threatens to eliminate mere 'probability' entirely.
| 8409 | Probabilistic causal concepts are widely used in everyday life and in science [Salmon] |
| 8408 | Probabilistic causation says C is a cause of E if it increases the chances of E occurring [Mellor, by Tooley] |
| 8567 | Singular causation requires causes to raise the physical probability of their effects [Mellor] |
| 16175 | A cause won't increase the effect frequency if other causes keep interfering [Cartwright,N] |
| 8392 | Probabilist laws are compatible with effects always or never happening [Tooley] |
| 8399 | The actual cause may not be the most efficacious one [Tooley] |
| 8418 | Quantum physics suggests that the basic laws of nature are probabilistic [Tooley] |
| 18527 | Probabilistic causation is not a weak type of cause; it is just a probability of there being a cause [Heil] |
| 10376 | The actual cause may make an event less likely than a possible more effective cause [Schaffer,J] |
| 10381 | All four probability versions of causation may need causation to be primitive [Schaffer,J] |