Notion Of Causality Research Articles

The Ontology of Mechanisms

I propose a metaphysical theory of mechanisms based on the notion of causation. In particular, I use causation to formulate existence, identity, and parthood conditions for mechanisms. These conditions provide a sound metaphysical basis for accounts of mechanistic explanation, mechanistic organization, and for more restrictive theories of mechanisms.

Inference on local causality and tests of non-causality in time series

The study of the causal relationships in a stochastic process $(Y_{t},Z_{t})_{t\in\mathbb{Z}}$ is a subject of a particular interest in finance and economy. A widely-used approach is to consider the notion of Granger causality, which in the case of first order Markovian processes is based on the joint distribution function of ${{(Y_{t+1},Z_{t})}}$ given ${{Y_{t}}}$. The measures of Granger causality proposed so far are global in the sense that if the relationship between ${{Y_{t+1}}}$ and ${{Z_{t}}}$ changes with the value taken by ${{Y_{t}}}$, this may not be captured. To circumvent this limitation, this paper proposes local causality measures based on the conditional copula of ${{(Y_{t+1},Z_{t})}}$ given ${{Y_{t}}}=x$. Exploiting results by [5] on the asymptotic behavior of two kernel-based conditional copula estimators under $\alpha$-mixing, the asymptotic normality of nonparametric estimators of these local measures is deduced and asymptotically valid confidence intervals are built; tests of local non-causality are also developed. The suitability of the proposed methods is investigated with simulations and their usefulness is illustrated on the time series of Standard & Poor’s 500 prices and trading volumes.

Personality and impulsive buying behaviors. A necessary condition analysis

Personality traits sufficiently explain the tendency of an individual displaying impulsive buying behaviours. However, necessity notions of causality imply that the desired level of impulsive buying behaviours would not exist if the required personality traits were not present. To date, an appropriate analytical tool to assess necessary conditions has been lacking. This study applies a newly developed method ‘Necessary Condition Analysis’ on a sample of 640 university students (in February 2017) to evaluate the necessity of personality traits for displaying impulsive buying behaviours. Results show that for lower level impulsive buying behaviours an individual’s conscientiousness is necessary, for medium level agreeableness, extraversion and openness become necessary conditions, while conscientiousness is a complementary necessary condition. Lastly, neuroticism is necessary for highest levels complemented by other personality traits. Application of NCA fundamentally changes our understanding regarding personality traits and impulsive buying behaviour relationship. Practically focusing on necessary conditions would be more effective than focusing on general predictors that only partially explain the outcomes.

Sanctification as Joint Agency with the Triune God

If humans are sanctified by a triune God, part of the success of spiritual formation depends on understanding how one’s agency depends upon the Trinity. Some sanctifying actions require causal notions like “obedience,” “yielding,” “participation,” and “cooperation.” So, how is a Christian going to understand them? The purpose of this paper, then, is twofold: (1) develop a model of agency that provides an adequate account of understanding how one’s agency depends upon the Trinity; and (2) explain how this model can increase the reliability of one’s perceptual capacities to perceive one’s agency cooperating with the Trinity in acts of sanctification.

Los causativos emocionales del español. Un estudio aspectual

El presente trabajo ahonda en la estructura aspectual o Aktionsart de los llamados causativos emocionales del español, tales como asustar, inquietar o molestar. Defiendo la hipótesis de que, tanto en su variante transitiva cuanto en la construcción pronominal (se), estos verbos exhiben el comportamiento del ‘logro compuesto’ (Fernández Lagunilla y De Miguel 1999, 2000). Así lo sugiere el conjunto de diagnósticos aspectuales, que aplico a datos de corpus. La hipótesis depende crucialmente de que el concepto de causa se deslinde de las propiedades eventivas de los verbos, como se ha argumentado en trabajos recientes y como también se verificará examinando los empleos estativos de los causativos emocionales.

Perspectivism with Objectivity, Causal and Temporal

It has been suggested that the only plausible way to integrate causality in the scientific image of the world is through a subjectivist causal perspectivism. Causation would exist only from the point of view of an agent capable of doing things. The conception of time associated with such causal perspectivism is certain temporal perspectivism that is also subjectivist. Following some ideas of Ramsey, Huw Price is a recent exponent of these approaches, which are rooted in Russell's critique of the notion of causality and in McTaggart’s irrealism about time. We analyze this line of thought and argue for an objectivist interpretation of those perspectivisms. It will be crucial a distinction between perspectives and the subjects capable of adopting them, as well as an analysis of the conditions for adopting perspectives.

Problemas de la noción de causa final en Aristóteles

Against the recent attempts by Irwin and Furley to subsume the final cause in the efficient cause, I try to read the notion of final causality as the result of a deconstruction made by Aristotle of the "divine cause" of the Timaeus. The final cause indicates a special dependency relationship in which a single event is essentially connected only to one of its consequences, and accidentally to all the others.

A Parametric Framework for Reversible Pi-Calculi

This paper presents a study of causality in a reversible, concurrent setting. There exist various notions of causality in pi-calculus, which differ in the treatment of parallel extrusions of the same name. In this paper we present a uniform framework for reversible pi-calculi that is parametric with respect to a data structure that stores information about an extrusion of a name. Different data structures yield different approaches to the parallel extrusion problem. We map three well-known causal semantics into our framework. We show that the (parametric) reversibility induced by our framework is causally-consistent and prove a causal correspondence between an appropriate instance of the framework and Boreale and Sangiorgi's causal semantics.

A Unified Notion of Cause

Abstract Contrary to their predecessors, the Stoics put forward a unified notion of cause: a cause is a bodily because-of-which (δι’ ὅ). Against the backdrop of Plato’s and Aristotle’s influential views, this is an original proposal. It involves the rejection of an earlier trend, according to which causes and explanations are closely associated. It also involves a pulling apart of causes and principles. And it comes with a charge against Plato and Aristotle, namely that they introduce a swarm of causes, a turba causarum.

A study on the ‘wordgasm’: the nature of blends’ splinters

The aim of this work is to study the nature of blends’ splinters, elements that have been often referred to as ‘final combining forms’, whose status remains unclear. Our specific objective is to analyze blends containing the element ‘-gasm’ to check tendencies in their formation. We intend to prove that the sequence ‘-gasm’ possesses a high degree of productivity and is used recurrently in the formation of new words. Through the analysis of the bases to which the splinter is attached and the study of the relationship existing between the component parts of the blends, we aim at discovering which mechanism is at work, while attempting to accommodate the operation within the theoretical framework of Construction Morphology, an approach to morphology within the overarching theory of Construction Grammar. This approach, proposed by Geert Booij, acknowledges the existence of constructions as pairings of form and meaning at word level, and thus it considers that abstractions allowing speakers to coin new complex words are based on actual instances of words that are memorized. We have compiled our own 200-sample corpus of novel English blends coined by native speakers of English and taken from a variety of sources (online corpora, websites listing neologisms, social networks, including Twitter, and even online discussion threads). For the data analysis, we proceed as follows: (i) identify the cases of hapax legomena in the corpus in order to account for the productivity of the process; (ii) recover the source words of all the blends subject to study and contextualize the items in our corpus, by providing an instance of each word in a wider context; (iii) analyze the relationships existing between the first and the second component of the novel coinages, according to different factors, such as the notion of causality and the cognitive and experiential relationship of cause and effect, the syntactic behaviour of the source words and the semantic roles fulfilled by these units; (iv) identify blends exhibiting a similar behaviour and propose constructional schemas to account for their creation. The results of our analysis show that the splinter analyzed appears to be highly productive, and that blends ending in ‘-gasm’ can belong to different groups, the most significant of which are the following: (a) cause and effect blends, in which the relationship between the source words is based on the notion of causality. Two different subsets can be identified in this group, depending on the meaning that ‘-gasm’ acquires in the resulting blend: that of physical pleasure, as in toygasm or that of a feeling of excitement or enthusiasm, as in neologasm; (b) experiencer blends, such as clowngasm, where the first participant fulfils the semantic role of an experiencer, that is, the first participant experiences the feeling of pleasure; (c) coordination blends, that is, blended words whose source words stand in a relationship of coordination, such as crygasm; (d) adjectival blends, in which the first element premodifies the feeling denoted by the second element, as in fakegasm. Based on our results, constructional morphology, and especially constructional schemas, seem to be a very appropriate tool for explaining the formation of these lexemes.

“What is a European hospital but a pagan shrine?” Missionaries, progress, and the problem of materiality in colonial Uganda

ABSTRACTWestern missionaries frequently stood at the forefront of altering African systems of healthcare and belief. Medical missionaries often spoke of their work as a means of combatting “superstition” and re-orienting African concepts of disease and illness towards Western notions of causality and treatment. Amidst missionary panegyrics, however, were a range of perceptions of and reactions to missionary medicine from Christian and non-Christian Africans alike. This essay explores these processes of resistance and appropriation through a combined analysis of missionary medicine and missionary involvement with the Uganda Museum. No single group in colonial Uganda offered as trenchant a critique of missionary healthcare and their involvement with the museum as did the leaders of an independent church known as the Malakites. The Malakites contended that it was the missionaries themselves who were hindering true progress away from paganism. For them, all “pagan shrines,” whether of African or European origin, were an affront to the sovereign God, who needed no form of human intervention to heal.

Obtaining the non-relativistic quantum mechanics from quantum field theory: issues, folklores and facts

Given the classical dynamics of a non-relativistic particle in terms of a Hamiltonian or an action, it is relatively straightforward to obtain the non-relativistic quantum mechanics (NRQM) of the system. These standard procedures, based on either the Hamiltonian or the path integral, however, do not work in the case of a relativistic particle. As a result we do not have a single-particle description of relativistic quantum mechanics (RQM). Instead, the correct approach requires a transmutation of dynamical variables from the position and momentum of a single particle to a field and its canonical momentum. Particles, along with antiparticles, reappear in a very nontrivial manner as the excitations of the field. The fact that one needs to adopt completely different languages to describe a relativistic and non-relativistic free particle implies that obtaining the NRQM limit of QFT is conceptually nontrivial. I examine this limit in several approaches (like, for e.g., Hamiltonian dynamics, Lagrangian and Hamiltonian path integrals, field theoretic description etc.) and identify the precise issues which arise when one attempts to obtain the NRQM from QFT in each of these approaches. The dichotomy of NRQM and QFT does not originate just from the square root in the Hamiltonian or from the demand of Lorentz invariance, as is sometimes claimed. The real difficulty has its origin in the necessary existence of antiparticles to ensure a particular notion of relativistic causality. Because of these conceptual issues, it turns out that one cannot, in fact, obtain some of the popular descriptions of NRQM by any sensible limiting procedure applied to QFT. To obtain NRQM from QFT in a seamless manner, it is necessary to work with NRQM expressed in a language closer to that of QFT. This fact has several implications, especially for the operational notion of space coordinates in quantum theory. A close examination of these issues, which arise when quantum theory is combined with special relativity, could offer insights in the context of attempts to combine quantum theory with general relativity.

Space-time nature of causality.

In a causal world the direction of the time arrow dictates how past causal events in a variable X produce future effects in Y. X is said to cause an effect in Y, if the predictability (uncertainty) about the future states of Y increases (decreases) as its own past and the past of X are taken into consideration. Causality is thus intrinsic dependent on the observation of the past events of both variables involved, to the prediction (or uncertainty reduction) of future event of the other variable. We will show that this temporal notion of causality leads to another natural spatiotemporal definition for it, and that can be exploited to detect the arrow of influence from X to Y, either by considering shorter time-series of X and longer time-series of Y (an approach that explores the time nature of causality) or lower precision measured time-series in X and higher precision measured time-series in Y (an approach that explores the spatial nature of causality). Causality has thus space and time signatures, causing a break of symmetry in the topology of the probabilistic space, or causing a break of symmetry in the length of the measured time-series, a consequence of the fact that information flows from X to Y.

Seeking observational evidence for the formation of trapping horizons in astrophysical black holes

Black holes in general relativity are characterized by their trapping horizon, a one-way membrane that can be crossed only inwards. The existence of trapping horizons in astrophysical black holes can be tested observationally using a reductio ad absurdum argument, replacing black holes by horizonless configurations with a physical surface and looking for inconsistencies with electromagnetic and gravitational wave observations. In this approach, the radius of the horizonless object is always larger than but arbitrarily close to the position where the horizon of a black hole of the same mass would be located. Upper bounds on the radius of these alternatives have been provided using electromagnetic observations (in optical/IR band) of astronomical sources at the center of galaxies, but lower bounds were lacking, leaving unconstrained huge regions of parameter space. We show here that lower bounds on the radius of horizonless objects that do not develop trapping horizons can be placed using observations of accreting systems. This result is model-independent and relies only on the local notion of causality dictated by the spacetime geometry around the horizonless object. These observational bounds reduce considerably the previously allowed parameter space, boosting the prospects of establishing the existence of trapping horizons using electromagnetic observations.

No communication without manipulation: A causal-deflationary view of information

In this paper, we shall describe a new account of information in communicational contexts, namely, a causal-deflationary one. Our approach draws from Timpson's deflationary view and supplies the field of philosophy of information with new tools that will help to clarify the underlying structure of communication: information is an abstract entity that must be involved in a causal link in order to achieve communication. In light of our account, communication is not merely the existence of statistical correlations between source and receiver, as usually understood from a purely formal view. Instead, communication is an asymmetric phenomenon involving causal notions: the destination system must be able to be causally manipulated by intervening on the source for successful communication. In a nutshell, we shall support the following lemma: no communication without manipulation.

SUCCESSIVE APPROXIMATIONS TO SELECTIONISM: SKINNER’S FRAMEWORK FOR BEHAVIOR IN THE 1930S AND 1940S

Despite the centrality of selection by consequences in Skinnerian work, the adoption or not of a selectionist perspective in the first decades of Skinner’s career is a controversial theme. Inconsistencies with respect to his affiliation or not with a selectionist epistemology in this period seem to reflect a lack of consensual definition of that proposal. Therefore, from three previously defined aspects of Skinner’s selectionist explanatory principle, the aim of this review is to assess, through the texts produced in the 1930s and 1940s, whether selection by consequences was used as an explanatory mode for behavior or whether there were traces of an epistemology that would lead to selectionism. It has been noted that, although at this early stage the idea of a selective process is already implicit, there are still remnants of a traditional notion of causality that is incompatible with an explanatory principle based on a relation of probabilistic interdependence between events, which explains the origin and evolution of behavior as being the product of three histories of variation and selection.

Causality re-established

Causality has never gained the status of a 'law' or 'principle' in physics. Some recent literature has even popularized the false idea that causality is a notion that should be banned from theory. Such misconception relies on an alleged universality of the reversibility of the laws of physics, based either on the determinism of classical theory, or on the multiverse interpretation of quantum theory, in both cases motivated by mere interpretational requirements for realism of the theory. Here, I will show that a properly defined unambiguous notion of causality is a theorem of quantum theory, which is also a falsifiable proposition of the theory. Such a notion of causality appeared in the literature within the framework of operational probabilistic theories. It is a genuinely theoretical notion, corresponding to establishing a definite partial order among events, in the same way as we do by using the future causal cone on Minkowski space. The notion of causality is logically completely independent of the misidentified concept of 'determinism', and, being a consequence of quantum theory, is ubiquitous in physics. In addition, as classical theory can be regarded as a restriction of quantum theory, causality holds also in the classical case, although the determinism of the theory trivializes it. I then conclude by arguing that causality naturally establishes an arrow of time. This implies that the scenario of the 'block Universe' and the connected 'past hypothesis' are incompatible with causality, and thus with quantum theory: they are both doomed to remain mere interpretations and, as such, are not falsifiable, similar to the hypothesis of 'super-determinism'.This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'Foundations of quantum mechanics and their impact on contemporary society'.

A Question of Faith?: Stengers and Whitehead on Causation and Conformation

A Question of Faith? Stengers and Whitehead on Causation and Conformation Michael Halewood (bio) Introduction Generalized solutions with apparently limitless applications are anathema to Isabelle Stengers, who demands that we recognize the specificity of the remit of the abstractions that we are constructing. One hallmark of her work is the distrust of any response that appears to be able to mollify a wide range of positions, problems or questions. Stengers is also wary of denouncing the positions held by opponents by claiming to trap them in a logical vice or pinning them in an absurdity. This is why, in this article, I do not set out to solve either the problem of cause or the problem of faith. Instead, I want to eavesdrop on the ongoing conversation between Stengers and Whitehead and to provide some comments on how their remarks could help us reorient how we approach some of the unexpected interrelations between faith and cause in science, philosophy, and social science. Stengers’s stance does not imply that we should not be ambitious in the questions or problems that we address; though there is a need to pay attention to that which has been isolated as being of concern. In the discussions that follow, I will ask some apparently general questions, but these are motivated by a central problem, namely, the very status of cause and causation. When we take a strict theoretical approach to science, or adopt a purely philosophical position, we might find it easy to say that there is no such thing as cause in the abstract. There is no hidden ultimate cause that sits behind the world, governing, regulating and explaining every single moment, item and process of existence. Yet, we also believe that smoking causes cancer; we tell children that matches can cause fires; we inform our insurance company that it was the other car that caused the accident. However, such mentions of causation lack the strength of a full concept of cause. It is not that smoking inevitably and always leads to cancer; or that all matches are determined to produce fires; or that the other driver was compelled to crash into us. The effect is not present in the cause: the same cause does not always produce the same effect. This leaves us in the tricky position where we may dismiss cause on theoretical [End Page 80] grounds, but we find it harder to do without some notion of causation in our everyday lives. It is this problematic status of causation, as something that we may deny in some aspects of our lives and yet require in others, that I want to address in this article. For reasons which I hope will become clear, I will also link this to the notion of faith in science and in social science. I will use Stengers’s ideas to argue that we need some clarity with regard to the distinctions between cause as an abstract concept, individual causes, and the very notion of causation. Too often these are mixed, the boundaries blurred, and this can lead to unnecessary confusion and a premature rejection of “cause” as a genuine factor in the world and our experience of it. This lack of clarity certainly constitutes a problem for many a sociologist who have all been carefully schooled to talk only of correlations and to avoid, like the plague, any mention of direct causes; so that they unthinkingly cite the modern sociologist’s mantra –“Correlation is not causation”– a mantra which only makes sense if the very concept of cause is seen as problematic, as something to be shunned. In the analyses which follow, there are three elements that I want to draw out, in place of a solution. These are, first, the particular, and slightly peculiar, stance of modern science with regard to cause. Second, the idea that the problem of the problem of cause is one that we have inherited in a very specific way. A recognition of this legacy could allow for us to rethink the scope of this problem. Third, a reconsideration of the role of faith in both science and social science. Perhaps social science has lost faith in cause, when there...

Truth criterium according to Malebranche

Along with a theological question, the protestat Reformation brought another one, epistemological: what is the criterion of truth? If truth is subjective, the spirit of a believer is the criterion, and one is free for deprehending whatever he pleases from his reading of the Bible. If it is objective, there must be some criterion of truth. At the beginning, catholics adopted skepticism and denied that truth could ever be known. That is why Father Malebranche attacks skeptics. But he also attacks Aristotelians. The present article shows how he solves the epistemological problem through occasionalism, and trows the foundations for English empiricism. At his attack ons skeptics, Malebranche repeats Contra Academicos and bets on the trueness of soul perceptions. On the other side, he shows that these perceptions cannot ever attain that truth of the things in themselves, and that their only utility is to reveal relations between ideas (which may be empirical). The knowledge would be the perception of such relations, without any Cartesian notion of objective causality. As for matters of faith, since they are not empirical, nor purely abstract, they must be subjected to the authority of tradition, and the most credible authority is the chronologically nearest to Revelation.

Physical models from noncommutative causality

We introduced few years ago a new notion of causality for noncommutative spacetimes directly related to the Dirac operator and the concept of Lorentzian spectral triple. In this paper, we review in a non-technical way the noncommutative causal structure of many toy models as almost commutative spacetimes and the Moyal-Weyl spacetime. We show that those models present some unexpected physical interpretations as a geometrical explanation of the Zitterbewegung trembling motion of a fermion as well as some geometrical constraints on translations and energy jumps of wave packets on the Moyal spacetime.