Causes and Explanations: A Structural-Model Approach --- Part 1: Causes

01/10/2013

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by   Joseph Y. Halpern, et al.

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We propose a new definition of actual causes, using structural equations to model counterfactuals.We show that the definitions yield a plausible and elegant account ofcausation that handles well examples which have caused problems forother definitions and resolves major difficulties in the traditionalaccount. In a companion paper, we show how the definition of causality can beused to give an elegant definition of (causal) explanation.