Recently I suggested that a cause is an event which, in its context of occurrence, is both necessary and sufficient for the effect. However this definition is only appropriate if there is a single potential cause of the effect. Consequently I suggest a generalization of the definition and discuss the resulting “Production Theory”. I suggest that this can be seen as a combination of a regularity...

We address the question which additional information on the source shape and dynamics can be extracted from three-particle Bose-Einstein correlations. For chaotic sources the true three-particle correlation term is shown to be sensitive to the momentum dependence of the saddle point of the source and to its asymmetries around that point. For partially coherent sources the three-pion correlator ...

This paper deals with the problem of estimating the probability of causation, that is, the probability that one event was the real cause of another, in a given scenario. Starting from structural-semantical de nitions of the probabilities of necessary or su cient causation (or both), we show how to bound these quantities from data obtained in experimental and observational studies, under general...

Some preventers only stop an effect when it is being produced by certain causes. For example, nasal spray prevents headaches caused by a cold but not headaches caused by dehydration or stress. Thus, preventers differ in preventative scope: the range of circumstances across which a preventer operates. An experiment indicated that people are sensitive to differences in preventative scope and that...

Conceptual analyses can be subdivided into two classes, good and evil. Empirical analysis is the good kind, routinely practiced in the sciences. Orthodox analysis is the malevolent version that plagues philosophical discourse. In this paper, I will clarify the difference between them, provide some reasons to prefer good over evil, and illustrate their consequences for the metaphysics of causati...

I argue that the constitution relation transmits causal efficacy and thus is a suitable relation to deploy in many troubled areas of philosophy, such as the mind– body problem. We need not demand identity.

Michael Moore's Causation and Responsibility^ is a comprehensive and fascinating study of the relationship between the law, moralify, and metaphysics. One of the most interesting (and, at the same time, controversial) theses Moore defends in this book is the claim that some central legal concepts are grounded in metaphysical concepts. In particular, Moore emphasizes the key role played in the l...

This paper investigates the relationship between the growth of road networks and regional development. We test for mutual causality between the growth of road networks (which are divided functionally into local roads and highways) and changes in county-level population and employment. We employ a panel data set containing observations of road mileage by type for all Minnesota counties over the ...

Contrast set mining has been extensively studied to detect changes between several contrasted databases. Previous studies mainly compared the supports of an itemset and extracted the itemsets with significantly different supports across those databases. Differently, we contrast the correlations of an itemset between two contrasted databases and attempt to detect potential changes. Any highly co...