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Interactive Causes: Revising the Markov Condition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Gerhard Schurz
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Abstract

This article suggests a revision of the theory of causal nets (TCN). In section 1 we introduce an axiomatization of TCN based on a realistic understanding. It is shown that the causal Markov condition entails three independent principles. In section 2 we analyze indeterministic decay as the major counterexample to one of these principles: screening off by common causes (SCC). We call SCC-violating common causes interactive causes. In section 3 we develop a revised version of TCN, called TCN*, which accounts for interactive causes. It is shown that there are interactive causal models that admit of no faithful noninteractive reconstruction.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 84 , Issue 3 , July 2017 , pp. 456 - 479
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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