Toward a Synthesis of Deterministic and Probabilistic Formulations of Causal Relations by the Functional Relation Concept

Abstract

There have been two principal paradigms for the formulation of the causal relation–logical implication and functional relationship. In this paper, I present a case for preferring the functional relationship formulation and then discuss how the functional relationship formulation may be implemented in the probabilistic case in a manner analogous to the way others have implemented the logical implication formulation in the probabilistic case. I show how the “local independence” assumption found in many models used in the behavioral and social sciences is a consequence of the functional relation concept of probabilistic causality. I also discuss why causal relations are underdetermined in experience and are to be dealt with pragmatically in a hypothesis-testing framework.