•  55
    The Ontology of Causation: A Carnapian-Pragmatist Approach
    Journal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie. forthcoming.
    Metaphysicians of causation have long debated the existence of primitive causal modalities (e.g., powers), with reductionists and realists taking opposing stances. However, little attention has been given to the legitimacy of the metaphysical question itself, despite our longstanding awareness of Rudolf Carnap’s critique of metaphysics. This article develops a (broadly) Carnapian-pragmatist approach to causation as an alternative to existing metaphysical approaches. Within this pragmatist approa…Read more
  •  102
    Causal Variable Choice, Interventions, and Pragmatism
    Dissertation, University of Western Ontario. 2023.
    The past century has witnessed numerous methodological innovations in probabilistic and statistical methods of causal inference (e.g., the graphical modelling and the potential outcomes frameworks, as introduced in Chapter 1). These innovations have not only enhanced the methodologies by which scientists across diverse domains make causal inference, but they have also made a profound impact on the way philosophers think about causation. The philosophical issues discussed in this thesis are stimu…Read more
  •  58
    Well-Defined Interventions and Causal Variable Choice
    Philosophy of Science 90 (2): 395-412. 2023.
    There has been much debate among scientists and philosophers about what it means for interventions invoked in causal inference to be “well-defined” and how considerations of this sort should constrain the choice of causal variables. In this paper, I propose that an intervention is well-defined just in case the effect of interest is well-defined, and that the intervention can serve as a suitable means to identify that effect. Based on this proposal, I identify several types of ambiguous intervent…Read more