by Judea Pearl and interventionist causal models (wonkish) As X’s effect on some other variable in the system S depends on there being a possible intervention on X, and the possibility of an intervention in turn depends on the modularity of S, it is a necessary condition for something to be a cause that the system in which it is a cause is modular with respect to that factor. The requirement that all systems are modular with respect to their causes can, in a way, be regarded as an interventionist addition to the unmanipulable causes problem … This implication has also been criticized in particular by Nancy Cartwright. She has proposed that many causal systems are not modular … Pearl has responded to this in 2009 (sect. 11.4.7), where he proposes, on the one
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Judea Pearl and interventionist causal models (wonkish)
As X’s effect on some other variable in the system S depends on there
being a possible intervention on X, and the possibility of an intervention in
turn depends on the modularity of S, it is a necessary condition for something
to be a cause that the system in which it is a cause is modular with respect
to that factor. The requirement that all systems are modular with respect to
their causes can, in a way, be regarded as an interventionist addition to the
unmanipulable causes problem … This implication has also been criticized in particular by Nancy Cartwright. She has proposed that many causal systems are not modular … Pearl has responded to this in 2009 (sect. 11.4.7), where he proposes, on the one hand, that it is in general sufficient that a symbolic intervention can be performed on the causal model, for the determination of causal effects, and on the other hand that we nevertheless could isolate the individual causal contributions …It is tempting—to philosophers at least—to equate claims in this literature,
about the meaning of causal claims being given by claims about what would
happen under a hypothetical intervention—or an explicit definition of causation to the same effect—with that same claim as it would be interpreted in a philosophical context. That is to say, such a claim would normally be understood there as giving the truth conditions of said causal claims. It is generally hard to know whether any such beliefs are involved in the scientific context. However, Pearl in particular has denied, in increasingly explicit terms, that this is what is intended … He has recently
liked to describe a factor Y , that is causally dependent on another factor X, as
“listening” to X and determining “its value in response to what it hears” … This formulation suggests to me that it is the fact that Y is “listening” to X that explains why and how Y changes under an intervention on X. That is, what a possible intervention does, is to isolate the influence that X has on Y , in virtue of Y ’s “listening” to X. Thus, Pearl’s theory does not imply an interventionist theory of causation, as we understand that concept in this monograph. This, moreover, suggests that the intervention that is always available, for any cause that is represented by a variable in a causal model, is a formal operation. I take this to be supported by the way he responds to Nancy Cartwright’s objection that modularity does not hold of all causal systems: it is sufficient that a symbolic intervention can be performed. Thus, the operation alluded to in Pearl’s operationalization of causation is a formal operation, always available, regardless of whether it corresponds to any possible intervention event or not.
Interesting dissertation well worth reading for anyone interested in the ongoing debate on the reach of interventionist causal theories.