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    Suzy's throw caused the bottle to shatter, not Billy's throw — Carmelics
    Home/Causation
    HistoryEditSee Inverse

    Suzy's throw caused the bottle to shatter, not Billy's throw

    Causation
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    1 reason for
    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.Suzy's rock arrived first and shattered the bottle
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    • 2.Billy's rock passed through where the bottle had stood after it was already broken
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    • 3.The bottle shattered before Billy's rock could reach it
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Causal claims require that the cause be necessary for the effect, but the bottle would have shattered anyway via Billy's throw had Suzy not thrown.
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    • 2.Under Lewis's original counterfactual analysis, if ~(had Suzy not thrown, the bottle would not have shattered), then Suzy's throw fails the test for causation.
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    • 3.Preemption cases like this reveal that temporal priority of arrival cannot substitute for counterfactual dependence as the criterion of causation.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Ned Hall distinguishes 'dependence' from 'production' as two genuinely distinct causal concepts, neither reducible to the other.
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    • 2.Under the production conception, Billy's throw initiated a continuous physical process toward the bottle and is equally a cause in the relevant mechanistic sense.
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    • 3.Privileging Suzy's throw reflects an implicit and unjustified preference for the dependence conception over the production conception.
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    Causation

    Related

    Billy's rock passed through where the bottle had stood after it was already brok...Causal claims require that the cause be necessary for the effect, but the bottle...Ned Hall distinguishes 'dependence' from 'production' as two genuinely distinct ...Preemption cases like this reveal that temporal priority of arrival cannot subst...
    +5 moreShow less
    Privileging Suzy's throw reflects an implicit and unjustified preference for the...Suzy's rock arrived first and shattered the bottleThe bottle shattered before Billy's rock could reach itUnder Lewis's original counterfactual analysis, if ~(had Suzy not thrown, the bo...Under the production conception, Billy's throw initiated a continuous physical p...

    Similar

    Billy's throw would have shattered the bottle only if Suzy had not thr...94%Billy's throw is a preempted potential cause, not an actual cause of t...93%Billy's throw has some degree of influence on the bottle's shattering ...91%There is no causal dependence between Suzy's throw and the shattering ...89%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: causation-counterfactual
    View source passageHide passage
    Billy and Suzy throw rocks at a bottle. Suzy throws first so that her rock arrives first and shatters the glass; Billy’s rock sails through the air where the bottle had stood moments earlier. Without Suzy’s throw, Billy’s throw would have shattered the bottle. However, Suzy’s throw caused the bottle to shatter, while Billy’s throw is merely a preempted potential cause. This is a case of late preemption because the alternative process (Billy’s throw) is cut short by the main process (Suzy’s throw
    Extraction notes

    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (1 for, 2 against)
    Edits
    1 edit