TY - JOUR
T1 - Curie's principle and causal graphs
AU - Kinney, David
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2021/6
Y1 - 2021/6
N2 - Curie's Principle says that any symmetry property of a cause must be found in its effect. In this article, I consider Curie's Principle from the point of view of graphical causal models, and demonstrate that, under one definition of a symmetry transformation, the causal modeling framework does not require anything like Curie's Principle to be true. On another definition of a symmetry transformation, the graphical causal modeling formalism does imply a version of Curie's Principle. These results yield a better understanding of the logical landscape with respect to the relationship between Curie's Principle and graphical causal modeling.
AB - Curie's Principle says that any symmetry property of a cause must be found in its effect. In this article, I consider Curie's Principle from the point of view of graphical causal models, and demonstrate that, under one definition of a symmetry transformation, the causal modeling framework does not require anything like Curie's Principle to be true. On another definition of a symmetry transformation, the graphical causal modeling formalism does imply a version of Curie's Principle. These results yield a better understanding of the logical landscape with respect to the relationship between Curie's Principle and graphical causal modeling.
KW - Causal graphs
KW - Causation
KW - Curie's Principle
KW - Markov condition
KW - Symmetry
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85102039615
U2 - 10.1016/j.shpsa.2021.02.007
DO - 10.1016/j.shpsa.2021.02.007
M3 - Article
C2 - 34111820
AN - SCOPUS:85102039615
SN - 0039-3681
VL - 87
SP - 22
EP - 27
JO - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science
JF - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science
ER -