Tag Archives: causation

"Pareidolia" refers to the common human practice of looking at random outcomes but trying to impose patterns on them. For example, we all know in the logical part of our brain that there are a roughly a kajillion different variables in the world, and so if we look through the possibilities, we will will have a 100% chance of finding some variables that are highly correlated with each other. These correlations will be a matter of pure chance, and they carry no meaning. But when my own brain,...

Causality is one of the fundamental problems in philosophy, covering epistemology, philosophy of language, semiotics, and philosophy of science. Since causality is the basis of explanation, it applies to all aspects of understanding and theorizing, as Aristotle pointed out in his Metaphysics millennia ago. Yet, there is still no complete understanding of causality that would end controversy.There many interrogatives — who, what, when, where, how and why, for example. Description involves...

Keynes and the fundamentals of probability.Lars P. Syll’s BlogTruth and probabilityLars P. Syll | Professor, Malmo University

Not a priority but of interest if for those who want to know more about how organizations deal with causation by analyzing the concrete in terms of the abstract.  This is related to what Hegel called "concrete universal, and Marx defined as "concrete abstraction." This is the basis of the dialect for Hegel and Marx's adoption and adaptation of it.A Philosopher's TakeCauses in Real Life – How Organizations Perform a Root Cause Analyses (RCA) Mike Steiner | Strategic Initiative Specialist...

Since econometrics doesn’t content itself with only making optimal predictions, but also aspires to explain things in terms of causes and effects, econometricians need loads of assumptions — most important of these are additivity and linearity. Important, simply because if they are not true, your model is invalid and descriptively incorrect. And when the model is wrong — well, then it’s wrong.... Simplifying assumptions versus oversimplification.Lars P. Syll’s BlogThe main reason why almost...

Everyone is familiar with the nostrum, "correlation is not causality." Simply put, correlation can potentially identify input-output relationships with a certain degree of probability. But the relationship is a "black box."Causal explanation involves opening the box and examining the contents. Correlation shows that something happens; causality in science explains how it happens, elucidating transmission in terms of operations. In formal systems the operators are rules, e.g., expressible...