Causal Relevance

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer McKitrick
Keyword(s):  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Counterfactual Dependence ◽  
Causal Role ◽  
Causal Relevance ◽  
Relevant Property ◽  
Complete Set

A causally efficacious or relevant property is a property of a cause. However, not every property of a cause is causally relevant to its effect. Further conditions are needed to screen off causally irrelevant properties. Proposals for further conditions include: The causally relevant property must have explanatory power; there must be counterfactual dependence of the effect on the causally relevant property; there must be a lawful connection between the causally relevant property and its effect; the complete set of causally relevant properties must exclude any other properties from playing a causal role; the causally relevant property must be independent from its effect, in some sense; and finally, the causally relevant property is a member of a set of properties that is minimally sufficient for the effect. The most plausible accounts count dispositions as causally relevant.

Does Anything Break Because it is Fragile?

1998 ◽  
pp. 95-99
Author(s):  
Paul Raymont
Keyword(s):  
David Lewis ◽  
Alternative Conception ◽  
Causal Role ◽  
Recent Attempt ◽  
Causal Relevance ◽  
Frank Jackson ◽  
Negative Argument

I maintain that dispositions are not causally relevant to their manifestations. The paper begins with a negative argument, which is intended to undermine David Lewis’ recent attempt to restore causal potency to dispositions by identifying their instantiations with the instantiations of their causal bases. I conclude that Lewis’ attempt to vindicate the causal credentials of dispositions meets obstacles that are analogous to (though importantly different from) those that beset Donald Davidson’s attempt to accord a causal role to the mental. I then consider an argument recently given by Frank Jackson against the causal relevance of dispositions (to their manifestations). Jackson’s argument relies on a conception of dispositions that is not likely to be shared by those who defend their causal relevance. I sketch an alternative conception of dispositions that links them more closely to their causal bases, but argue that even on this model dispositions are causally impotent. The paper closes with a defense of the claim that dispositions, in spite of their causal irrelevance to their manifestations, are nevertheless causal-explanatorily relevant to them.

scholarly journals Which Seed Properties Determine the Preferences of Carabid Beetle Seed Predators?

Insects ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 757
Author(s):  
Foffová Hana ◽  
Ćavar Zeljković Sanja ◽  
Honěk Alois ◽  
Martinková Zdenka ◽  
Tarkowski Petr ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Seed Coat ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Seed Mass ◽  
Carabid Beetles ◽  
Plant Strategy ◽  
Seed Predators ◽  
Lack Of Information ◽  
Complete Set ◽  
Morphological Defence ◽  
Explained Variance

Ground beetles are important invertebrate seed predators in temperate agro-ecosystems. However, there is a lack of information regarding which seed properties are important to carabids when they select seeds for consumption. Therefore, seed properties, such as size, shape, morphological defence, and chemical composition, were measured, and in addition to seed taxonomy and ecology, these data were used to explain carabid preferences. Carabid preferences were assessed using a multi-choice experiment with 28 species of weed seeds presented to 37 species of Carabidae. Multiple regression on distance matrices (MRM) was used to determine the importance of particular sets of seed properties for carabids. The analysis was conducted for the full set of carabids (37 species) as well as for subsets of species belonging to the tribes of Harpalini or Zabrini. For the complete set of species, seed dimensions, seed mass, taxonomy, plant strategy, and seed coat properties significantly explained carabid preferences (proportion of explained variance, R2 = 0.465). The model for Harpalini fit the data comparably well (R2 = 0.477), and seed dimensions, seed mass and seed coat properties were significant. In comparison to that for Harpalini, the model for Zabrini had much lower explanatory power (R2 = 0.248), and the properties that significantly affected the preferences were seed dimensions, seed mass, taxonomy, plant strategy, and seed coat properties. This result suggests that the seed traits that carabids respond to may be specific to taxonomic and likely relate to the degree of specialisation for seeds. This study contributes to understanding the mechanisms that determine the preferences of carabid beetles for seeds.

Do Writing Directions Influence How People Map Space onto Time?

2018 ◽  
Vol 77 (4) ◽  
pp. 173-184
Author(s):  
Wenxing Yang ◽  
Ying Sun
Keyword(s):  
Mental Representations ◽  
Space Time ◽  
Horizontal Axis ◽  
Causal Role ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Temporal Cognition ◽  
Japanese Speakers ◽  
Psychological Experiments ◽  
Vertical Up

Abstract. The causal role of a unidirectional orthography in shaping speakers’ mental representations of time seems to be well established by many psychological experiments. However, the question of whether bidirectional writing systems in some languages can also produce such an impact on temporal cognition remains unresolved. To address this issue, the present study focused on Japanese and Taiwanese, both of which have a similar mix of texts written horizontally from left to right (HLR) and vertically from top to bottom (VTB). Two experiments were performed which recruited Japanese and Taiwanese speakers as participants. Experiment 1 used an explicit temporal arrangement design, and Experiment 2 measured implicit space-time associations in participants along the horizontal (left/right) and the vertical (up/down) axis. Converging evidence gathered from the two experiments demonstrate that neither Japanese speakers nor Taiwanese speakers aligned their vertical representations of time with the VTB writing orientation. Along the horizontal axis, only Japanese speakers encoded elapsing time into a left-to-right linear layout, which was commensurate with the HLR writing direction. Therefore, two distinct writing orientations of a language could not bring about two coexisting mental time lines. Possible theoretical implications underlying the findings are discussed.

The Explanatory Power of Ethnomethodology

1980 ◽  
Vol 25 (7) ◽  
pp. 573-574
Author(s):  
JAMES LULL
Keyword(s):  
Explanatory Power

The Explanatory Power and Status of Power and Status

1979 ◽  
Vol 24 (10) ◽  
pp. 748-750
Author(s):  
K. T. STRONGMAN
Keyword(s):  
Explanatory Power

Comparison of Examinees’ and Doctors’ Judgement of Health Status Using Data in an AMHTS

1984 ◽  
Vol 23 (01) ◽  
pp. 15-22
Author(s):  
Y. Sekita ◽  
T. Ohta ◽  
M. Inoue ◽  
H. Takeda
Keyword(s):  
Health Status ◽  
Discriminant Analysis ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Laboratory Data ◽  
Subjective Symptom ◽  
Health Conditions ◽  
Testing System ◽  
Multiple Discriminant Analysis ◽  
Canonical Axis ◽  
Using Data

SummaryJudgements of examinees’ health status by doctors and by the examinees themselves are compared applying multiple discriminant analysis. The doctors’ judgements of the examinees’ health status are studied comparatively using laboratory data and the examinees’ subjective symptom data.This data was obtained in an Automated Multiphasic Health Testing System. We discuss the health conditions which are significant for the judgement of doctors about the examinees. The results show that the explanatory power, when using subjective symptom data, is fair in the case of the doctors’ judgement. We found common variables, such as nervousness, lack of perseverance etc., which form the first canonical axis.

Explanatory Power for Medical Expert Systems: Studies in the Representation of Causal Relationships for Clinical Consultations

1982 ◽  
Vol 21 (03) ◽  
pp. 127-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. W. Wallis ◽  
E. H. Shortliffe
Keyword(s):  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Prototype System ◽  
Inference Rules ◽  
Medical Expert ◽  
Comprehensive Knowledge ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Medical Expert Systems ◽  
Explanation System ◽  
Systems Studies

This paper reports on experiments designed to identify and implement mechanisms for enhancing the explanation capabilities of reasoning programs for medical consultation. The goals of an explanation system are discussed, as is the additional knowledge needed to meet these goals in a medical domain. We have focussed on the generation of explanations that are appropriate for different types of system users. This task requires a knowledge of what is complex and what is important; it is further strengthened by a classification of the associations or causal mechanisms inherent in the inference rules. A causal representation can also be used to aid in refining a comprehensive knowledge base so that the reasoning and explanations are more adequate. We describe a prototype system which reasons from causal inference rules and generates explanations that are appropriate for the user.

Freedom Indices and Capital Asset Pricing Model: Some Malaysian Evidence

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Ying Tay Lee ◽  
Devinaga Rasiah ◽  
Ming Ming Lai
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Asset Pricing ◽  
Stock Returns ◽  
Firm Size ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Least Square ◽  
Press Freedom ◽  
Capital Asset Pricing ◽  
Capital Asset ◽  
Cross Sectional

Human rights and fundamental freedoms such as economic, political, and press freedoms vary widely from country to country. It creates opportunity and risk in investment decisions. Thus, this study is carried out to examine if the explanatory power of the model for capital asset pricing could be improved when these human rights movement indices are included in the model. The sample for this study comprises of 495 stocks listed in Bursa Malaysia, covering the sampling period from 2003 to 2013. The model applied in this study employed the pooled ordinary least square regression estimation. In addition, the robustness of the model is tested by using firm size as a controlled variable. The findings show that market beta as well as the economic and press freedom indices could explain the cross-sectional stock returns of the Malaysian stock market. By controlling the firm size, it adds marginally to the explanation of the extended CAP model which incorporated economic, political, and press freedom indices.

Metaphor and Intertextuality: A Cognitive Approach to Intertextual Meaning-Making in Metafictional Fantasy Novels

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary-Anne Shonoda
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Cognitive Poetics ◽  
Cognitive Approach ◽  
Mapping Model ◽  
Fantasy Novels ◽  
Narrative Functions ◽  
The Cross ◽  
Metaphoric Expression

Scholars in children's literature have frequently commented on the humorous and ideological functions of intertextuality. There has however, been little discussion of the cognitive processes at work in intertextual interpretation and how they provide readers with more interpretive freedom in the meaning-making process. Drawing on research from the field of metaphor studies and the interdisciplinary area of cognitive poetics, this article suggests that the interpretation of foregrounded intertextuality is analogous to the interpretation of metaphoric expression. Current models of metaphor interpretation are discussed before I outline my own intertextuality-based variant. The cross-mapping model developed is then applied to literary intertexts in Inkheart and cultural intertexts in Starcross in order to show how the model might work with intertexts of varying degrees of specificity and that serve different narrative functions. The explanatory power of the cross-mapping model is not limited to cases where elements in the primary storyworld can be directly matched with those in the intertext, but extends to instances that involve a recasting of the intertext and thus retelling as in Princess Bride.

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