The definition of cause is more of a philosophy/epistemology question than a statistics question. I'm not sure those 3 points are necessary. Even temporal prece

The definition of cause is more of a philosophy/epistemology question than a statistics question. I'm not sure those 3 points are necessary. Even temporal precedence is called into question by quantum mechanics. Positrons are just electrons traveling backwards in time and all that. Most troubling is point 3 -- a lack of other plausible explanations. There are many things, such as smoking cigarettes causing cancer, that have other plausible explanations. It is clear that Americans understand causality to be some form of influence, and not necessarily the only possible influence for an event. It is the degree of influence that matters.