With regards to the concept of a working causal route, Hitchcock talks of genuine or token causation about pursuing the terms and conditions:
(10) If c and e are distinct actual events and X and Z are binary variables whose values represent the occurrence and non-occurrence of these events, then c is a cause of e if and only if there is an active causal route from X to Z in an appropriate causal model
Lewis resorts in order to quasi-dependence as the shattering of one’s bottles (e) will not counterfactually trust Suzys put (c), thanks to what might has happened had she not tossed (viz, Billys rock would have shattered the latest bottles instead)
As stated, (10) doesnt deal with instances of symmetric overdetermination as the when Suzy and you will Billy each other throw the stones on their own, for every toss is sufficient toward package to break, https://datingranking.net/local-hookup/houston/ and one another stones strike the container thus neither toss preempts this new other, given that neither put is found on a dynamic channel just like the defined in the (9). To deal with particularly circumstances, Hitchcock weakens (10) of the replacing this new ‘energetic route in (10) on thought of a great weakly energetic station (2001: 290). Many tip right here that there’s a weakly productive channel anywhere between X and you may Z merely whenever Z counterfactually depends on X in freezing of some you can easily, not always genuine, viewpoints of your own variables which are not on route out-of X so you can Z. Intuitively, to recuperate counterfactual dependency ranging from Suzys place as well as the shattering we hold fixed BT = 0: had Suzy maybe not tossed about design in which Billy does not toss, the new container lack smashed. Similarly getting Billys toss.
Might approach implemented here to handle each other preemption and you can symmetric overdetermination contains a glaring similarity in order to Lewiss quasi-reliance choice to this new late preemption state. age quasi-relies on c, however, because you to definitely when you look at the a potential community with the same legislation the spot where the inherent reputation of your techniques out-of c so you’re able to e is similar however, Billy does not put, you’ve got the expected counterfactual reliance. ‘Freezing details that are not inherent to the c-elizabeth process at its real values (during the later preemption instances) age.grams. freezing BH on 0 converts more or less an identical secret. New key huge difference is that Lewiss provider relates to attractive to brand new basic facts regarding a completely ordinary counterfactual (“When the Suzy hadn’t tossed, …”) during the a potential world where particular genuine events (elizabeth.g. Billys strike) try not to occur, since the structural-equations provider comes to appealing to the outcome out of a great counterfactual which have a new types of antecedent (“Got Suzy perhaps not tossed and you will Billys rock however perhaps not hit, …”). Hitchcock phone calls these types of ‘explicitly nonforetracking (ENF) counterfactuals. (Furthermore to own shaped overdetermination, in which we ‘freeze BT within 0 now a non-real well worth to recoup counterfactual reliance between Suzys put therefore the shattering.)
5.2 SEF and you will Counterfactuals
Whoever has pursued the brand new SEF approach to taking a diagnosis out-of ‘real causation which is, the latest causal relatives ranging from real, kind of incidents have seen hardly any to state regarding the semantics of counterfactuals one underpin SEF. Specific people (age.grams. Hitchcock 2001) explicitly and several experts implicitly assume a generally Lewisian approach to counterfactuals, and so the structural equations is actually representations away from affairs from situations about counterfactual dependency as demonstrated above whose information standards was generally Lewisian.