Causal Conditional

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Article #894

#894

From: DonH
Date: Thu, 01 Dec 2011 18:30

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Philosophy has a Material Conditional, which has a Truth Table of dubious 
merit; one example given being that IF you hold up a guinea pig by its tail, 
its eyes will fall out.  The antecedent cannot be tested (no tail), but that 
doesn't necessarily falsify the consequent.
  Be that as it may, the Conditional which Science is mostly concerned about 
is the Causal, which deals with Events, but only after eliminating the 
Irrelevant, the Subsequent, to get to the real Consequent.
  If an Event (Y) occurs, what was the Cause (X)?
  This is investigated, thus:  (See J.S. Mill)
(1) If X is always present when Y is present, then X may be the/a cause of 
Y.
(2) If X is present, but Y is absent, then X cannot be cause of Y.
(3) If X is absent, but Y is present, then X cannot be cause of Y.
(4) If both are absent, then look elsewhere.
      To which we may add-
(5) If X varies when Y varies, then there may be a causal link.

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From: "DonH" <donlhumphries@bigpond.com>
Newsgroups: aus.science
Subject: Causal Conditional
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