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Patrick Suppes: Scientific Philosopher pp 257–292Cite as

Probabilistic Causation Without Probability

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Part of the book series: Synthese Library ((SYLI,volume 234))

Abstract

The failure of Hume’s ‘constant conjunction’ to describe apparently causal relations in science and everyday life has led to various ‘probabilistic’ theories of causation of which (Suppes 1970) is an important example. A formal model that was developed for the analysis of comparative agricultural experiments in the first quarter of this century can be used to give an alternative account of ‘probabilistic causality’ that does not take a stand as to the stochastic or deterministic nature of the causal connection. The approach has many applications in social, behavioral and medical science. This paper discusses the formal model in detail, applies it to ‘probabilistic causation’ and compares the resulting theory to Suppes’s theory.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Education, EP, University of California, 4511 Tolman Hall, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA

    Paul W. Holland

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  1. Paul W. Holland
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Corcoran Department of Philosophy, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA

    Paul Humphreys

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© 1994 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Holland, P.W. (1994). Probabilistic Causation Without Probability. In: Humphreys, P. (eds) Patrick Suppes: Scientific Philosopher. Synthese Library, vol 234. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-0774-7_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-0774-7_10

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-4331-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-011-0774-7

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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