Full Idea
What confers on observed regularities the character of causal or nomic connections is the possibility of subjecting cause-factors to experimental test by interfering with the 'natural' course of events.
Clarification
'Nomic' mean lawlike
Gist of Idea
We give regularities a causal character by subjecting them to experiment
Source
G.H. von Wright (Logic and Epistemology of Causal Relations [1973], §7)
Book Reference
'Causation', ed/tr. Sosa,E. /Tooley,M. [OUP 1993], p.117
A Reaction
This is von Wright's distinctive proposal, making causation a feature of the culture of science, rather than of ordinary life. But see Idea 2461. Causation is becoming too epistemological for my taste. Either it is a feature of reality, or forget it.
Related Idea
Idea 2461 An experiment is a deliberate version of what informal thinking does all the time [Fodor]