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Common Cause Explanation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Elliott Sober
Elliott Sober*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of Wisconsin—Madison
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Abstract

Russell (1948), Reichenbach (1956), and Salmon (1975, 1979) have argued that a fundamental principle of science and common sense is that “matching” events should not be chalked up to coincidence, but should be explained by postulating a common cause. Reichenbach and Salmon provided this intuitive idea with a probabilistic formulation, which Salmon used to argue for a version of scientific realism. Van Fraassen (1980, 1982) showed that the principle, so construed, runs afoul of certain results in quantum mechanics. In this paper a new formulation of the principle is offered that emerges from its use in evolutionary theory. This characterization identifies fairly general conditions in which postulating common causes will be more explanatory than postulating separate causes.

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Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 51 , Issue 2 , June 1984, pp. 212 - 241
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1984

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Footnotes

†

Ellery Eells, Steven Farris, and an anonymous referee of this journal provided useful suggestions for improving an earlier draft. I also am grateful to the University of Wisconsin-Madison Graduate School for financial support in the form of a Romnes Faculty Fellowship.

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