Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T05:08:04.839Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Discussion: What Would Happen if Everyone Did It? A Reply to Collier and Giere on Frequency Dependent Causation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Elliott Sober
Elliott Sober*
Affiliation:
Philosophy Department, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In a recent article (Sober 1982), I criticized an account of causation proposed by Giere (1979, 1980) by describing a series of examples concerning natural selection. Collier (1983) has criticized my criticisms, saying that I misapplied Giere's proposal and misconstrued the biology. More recently, Giere (1984) has defended his theory against my criticisms. Here I argue that my criticisms still stand.

Type
Discussion
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 52 , Issue 1 , March 1985 , pp. 141 - 150
Copyright
Copyright © 1985 by the Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

†

My thanks to Ellery Eells and the anonymous referees of this journal for helpful suggestions. I also am grateful to the National Science Foundation and the University of Wisconsin, Madison Graduate School for financial support.

References

Cartwright, N. (1979), “Causal laws and effective strategies”, Nous 13: 419–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collier, J. (1983), “Frequency-Dependent Causation: A Defense of Giere”, Philosophy of Science 50: 618–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eells, E., and Sober, E. (1983), “Probabilistic Causality and the Question of Transitivity”, Philosophy of Science 50: 35–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fisher, R. (1930), The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection. 2nd edition. New York: Dover, 1957.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giere, R. (1979), Understanding Scientific Reasoning. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.Google Scholar
Giere, R. (1980), “Causal Systems and Statistical Hypotheses”, in Applications of Inductive Logic. Cohen, L. J. (ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Giere, R. (1984), “Causal Models with Frequency Dependence”, Journal of Philosophy 79: 384–91.Google Scholar
Good, I. J. (1961–62), “A causal calculus I and II”, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 11: 305–18; 12: 43–51; 13: 88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hesslow, G. (1976), “Two notes on the probabilistic approach to causality”, Philosophy of Science 43: 290–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Otte, R. (1981), “A critique of Suppes' theory of probabilistic causality”, Synthese 48: 167–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Salmon, W. (1980), “Probabilistic causality”, Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 61: 59–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skyrms, B. (1980), Causal Necessity. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Sober, E. (1982), “Frequency Dependent Causation,” Journal of Philosophy 79: 247–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sober, E. (1984), The Nature of Selection. Cambridge: Bradford/MIT Press.Google Scholar
Suppes, P. (1970), A Probabilistic Theory of Causality. Amsterdam: North-Holland Publishing Co.Google Scholar