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    Carmelics

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    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
    Statements
    321,452
    Perspectives
    108,905
    Topics
    42
    Home/Original/inverse
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    Inverse View

    It is not the case that Causes should not be understood as sufficient conditions for their effects.

    ?Set your confidence on the premises below to see your aggregate.

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
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    • 1.Mackie's INUS condition analysis shows causes are insufficient but necessary parts of unnecessary but sufficient conditions.
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    • 2.The Geiger counter case is fully accommodated by INUS: decay is an insufficient part of a sufficient complex that includes the wiring and bomb mechanism.
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    • 3.Therefore, the sufficiency relation is preserved at the level of the complete causal complex, not defeated by the example.
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    Reason for 2 of 2
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    • 1.Lewis's counterfactual analysis treats causation as chains of counterfactual dependence, not bare sufficiency, yet still yields deterministic causal structure.
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    • 2.In the Geiger counter case, the bomb would not have exploded without the decay, satisfying counterfactual dependence even absent strict sufficiency.
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    • 3.Rejecting sufficiency as the criterion of causation does not establish Anscombe's conclusion, since structured counterfactual dependence preserves robust causal necessity without relying on probabilistic looseness.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.In the Geiger counter bomb case, the radioactive decay was not sufficient for the bomb exploding.
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    • 2.Yet the radioactive decay is the cause of the bomb exploding.
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    • 3.If causes were sufficient conditions, something insufficient for an effect could not be its cause.
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    Strongest counterpoint
    Explore the most compelling reason on the other side.