The Frugal Inference of Causal Relations

Malcolm Forster, Garvesh Raskutti, Reuben Stern, Naftali Weinberger

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

    20 Citations (Scopus)
    304 Downloads (Pure)

    Abstract

    Recent approaches to causal modelling rely upon the causal Markov condition, which specifies which probability distributions are compatible with a directed acyclic graph (DAG). Further principles are required in order to choose among the large number of DAGs compatible with a given probability distribution. Here we present a principle that we call frugality. This principle tells one to choose the DAG with the fewest causal arrows. We argue that frugality has several desirable properties compared to the other principles that have been suggested, including the well-known causal faithfulness condition.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)821-848
    JournalThe British Journal for Philosophy of Science
    Volume69
    Issue number3
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2018

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