Abstract:
\nThis talk develops axiomatic foundations for a probabilistic \;
theory of causal strength. I proceed in three steps: First\, I motivate \;
the choice of causal Bayes nets as a framework for defining and \;
comparing measures of causal strength. Second\, I prove several \;
representation theorems for probabilistic measures of causal \;
strength---that is\, I demonstrate how these measures can be derived from \;
a set of plausible adequacy conditions. Third\, I use these results to \;
argue for a specific measure of causal strength. I conclude by \;
discussing my results and outlining future research avenues.