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Well-Defined Interventions and Causal Variable Choice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2022

Zili Dong Open the ORCID record for Zili Dong [Opens in a new window]
Zili Dong*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Western University, London, ON, Canada
*
Email: zdong67@uwo.ca
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Abstract

There has been much debate among scientists and philosophers about what it means for (hypothetical) interventions invoked in causal inference to be “well-defined” and how considerations of this sort should constrain the choice of causal variables. In this article, I propose that an intervention is well-defined just in case the effect of interest is well-defined, and that the intervention can serve as a suitable means to identify that effect. Based on this proposal, I identify several types of ambiguous intervention. Implications for variable choice are discussed using case studies drawn from the sciences.

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Type
Article
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Philosophy of Science , Volume 90 , Issue 2 , April 2023 , pp. 395 - 412
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Philosophy of Science Association

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