3 ms·

The reason it is causally related is that if you were to not push the pedal at any of those instances, the car would move slower than if you were to push it fas

The reason it is causally related is that if you were to not push the pedal at any of those instances, the car would move slower than if you were to push it faster. There's also a causal effect from biking to showering, although there are a few other things in the causal path such as getting sweaty. If you walked home instead of biking, you might avoid the shower. So biking does cause you take a shower.

BenoitP 5y ago
> if you were to not push the pedal at any of those instance That's the key to it IMHO. There has to be isolation for identifying causal relationships. Science is the work to be sure you're measuring the thinnest partial derivative. I'd generalize it to "All else being equal" ---- On another note, I believe there are classes in causality, arranged in a hierarchy. If you're studying the 'physical' class (level 0), you'll end up with causators in the same level or higher ('system' class, level 1). In our case the 'all things being equal' has to take account of an instance of a higher class (the human 'system' regulating the fuel input with the pedal) The level 2 would be system of systems; for example processes like the Darwinian evolution.
OJFord 5y ago
It's precisely this 'at any of those instances' and 'path' of causations that aren't sitting comfortably with me; primarily the first, but when it interacts with the latter and things are related by physics and derivatives w.r.t. time say, it's not any of more a causal factor than any other input? If all we mean by 'x causes y' is that 'y is a function of (perhaps among other things) x', then.. fine?
- dentalperson 5y ago
  I made up these phrases to give a simple explanation instead of causal inference terms, and they are probably not good terms, so sorry for the confusion. If I describe it in more standard vocabulary, 'at any of those instances' refer to doing interventions (such as randomized controlled trials). 'causal path' refers to a path in a directed acyclic graph that models the causality. https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/ggdag/vignettes/intro-to-dags.html https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/ggdag/vignettes/intr... has some examples.

BenoitP 5y ago

> if you were to not push the pedal at any of those instance That's the key to it IMHO. There has to be isolation for identifying causal relationships. Science is the work to be sure you're measuring the thinnest partial derivative. I'd generalize it to "All else being equal" ---- On another note, I believe there are classes in causality, arranged in a hierarchy. If you're studying the 'physical' class (level 0), you'll end up with causators in the same level or higher ('system' class, level 1). In our case the 'all things being equal' has to take account of an instance of a higher class (the human 'system' regulating the fuel input with the pedal) The level 2 would be system of systems; for example processes like the Darwinian evolution.

OJFord 5y ago

It's precisely this 'at any of those instances' and 'path' of causations that aren't sitting comfortably with me; primarily the first, but when it interacts with the latter and things are related by physics and derivatives w.r.t. time say, it's not any of more a causal factor than any other input? If all we mean by 'x causes y' is that 'y is a function of (perhaps among other things) x', then.. fine?

dentalperson 5y ago
I made up these phrases to give a simple explanation instead of causal inference terms, and they are probably not good terms, so sorry for the confusion. If I describe it in more standard vocabulary, 'at any of those instances' refer to doing interventions (such as randomized controlled trials). 'causal path' refers to a path in a directed acyclic graph that models the causality. https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/ggdag/vignettes/intro-to-dags.html https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/ggdag/vignettes/intr... has some examples.