Causal Reasoning Flashcards
Define: causal reasoning.
Inductive reasoning in which some effect is inferred from what i assumed to be its cause, or some cause is inferred from what is assumed to be its effect.
Define: necessary condition.
A circumstance (or set of circumstances) in whose absence a given event cannot occur.
Define: sufficient condition.
A circumstance (or set of circumstances) whose presence ensures the occurrence of a given event.
Related: “cause” in the sense of “tending to play a causative role” and “cause” in the sense of “the one factor that was critical in the occurrence of some phenomenon.”
Define: remote cause.
In any chain of causes and effects, an event distant from the effect for which explanation is sought. Contrasted with “proximate” cause.
Define: proximate cause.
In any chain of causes and effects, the event nearest to the event whose explanation is sought. Contrasted with “remote” causes, which are more distant in the causal chain.
Define: necessary and sufficient condition.
The conjunction of necessary conditions for the occurrence of a given event, this conjunction being all that is needed to ensure the occurrence of the event. It is the sense in which the word cause is used when inferences are drawn both from cause to effect and from effect to cause.
We can infer effect from cause only when by cause if meant _____.
sufficient condition
We can infer cause from effect only when by cause is meant _____.
necessary condition
When inferences are drawn both from cause to effect and effect to cause, the word cause must be used in the sense of ______.
necessary and sufficient condition
Define: causal law.
Descriptive laws asserting a necessary connection between events of two kinds, of which one is the cause and the other is the effect.
Define: inductive generalization.
The process of arriving at universal propositions from particular facts of experience, relying upon the principle of induction.
Define: induction by simple enumeration.
A type of inductive generalization in which the premises are instances where phenomena of two kinds repeatedly accompany one another in certain circumstances, from which it is concluded that phenomena of those two kinds always accompany one another in such circumstances.
Define: Mill’s methods.
The five patterns of inductive inference, analyzed and formulated by John Stuart Mill, with which hypotheses are confirmed or disconfirmed.
What are Mill’s five methods of inductive inference?
- the method of agreement
- the method of difference
- the joint method of agreement and difference
- the method of residues
- the method of concomitant variation
Define: method of agreement.
A pattern of inductive inference in which it is concluded that, if two or more instances of a given phenomenon have only one circumstance in common, that one common circumstance is the cause (or effect) of the phenomenon.
