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Full Idea
The label 'probabilistic causation' is misleading. What you have is not a weakened or tentative kind of causing, but a probability of there being a cause.
Gist of Idea
Probabilistic causation is not a weak type of cause; it is just a probability of there being a cause
Source
John Heil (The Universe as We Find It [2012], 06.5)
Book Ref
Heil,John: 'The Universe as We Find It' [OUP 2012], p.125
A Reaction
The idea of 'probabilistic causation' strikes me as an empty philosophers' concoction, so I agree with Heil.
| 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] |