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Are There Causal Relations Among Dependent Variables?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Daniel Hausman
Daniel Hausman*
Affiliation:
Committee on the History and Philosophy of Science University of Maryland
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Abstract

This paper makes explicit and takes issue with the bizarre view, which is unfortunately prevalent among social scientists, that causal relations are features of models only. There are some good reasons to represent causal factors with independent variables. But the association between causes and independent variables is only a desideratum in model construction. It is not a criterion for judging which things are causes and which are effects.

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Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 50 , Issue 1 , March 1983 , pp. 58 - 81
Copyright
Copyright © 1983 by the Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

†

The research for this paper was generously supported by the National Science Foundation (Grant # SES 8007385). Douglas Ehring provided invaluable assistance in thinking through related problems concerning causal asymmetry. Raymond Martin, Martin Osborne, Herbert Simon and Paul Thagard made helpful criticisms. Susan Byers provided expert research assistance.

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