A New Minimality Condition for Boolean Accounts of Causal Regularities

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Erkenntnis

Abstract

The account of causal regularities in the influential INUS theory of causation has been refined in the recent developments of the regularity approach to causation and of the Boolean methods for inference of deterministic causal structures. A key element in the refinement is to strengthen the minimality or non-redundancy condition in the original INUS account. In this paper, we argue that the Boolean framework warrants a further strengthening of the minimality condition. We motivate our stronger condition by showing, first, that a rationale for strengthening the original minimality condition in the INUS theory is also applicable to our proposal to go further, and second, that the new element of the stronger condition is a counterpart to a well-established minimality condition for probabilistic causal models. We also compare the various minimality conditions in terms of the difference-making criteria they imply and argue for the criterion implied by our condition. Finally, we show that putative counterexamples to our proposal can be addressed in the same way that the Boolean theorists defend the current minimality conditions in their framework.

DOI

10.1007/s10670-023-00685-4

Publication Date

4-29-2023

Keywords

Boolean Minimization, Causal Inference, Causation, Difference-Making, INUS

Comments

IR conditions: non-described

Link to Full Text

Share

COinS