The three faces of faithfulness.

In the causal inference framework of Spirtes, Glymour, and Scheines (SGS), inferences about causal relationships are made from samples from probability distributions and a number of assumptions relating causal relations to probability distributions. The most controversial of these assumptions is the...

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Publicado en:Synthese Vol. 193; no. 4; pp. 1011 - 1028
Autores principales: Zhang, Jiji, Spirtes, Peter
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Springer Nature Apr2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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        au:
          Zhang, Jiji
          Spirtes, Peter
        affil:
          Department of Philosophy, Lingnan University, Room HSH201, Ho Sin Hang Building Tuen Mun Hong Kong
          Department of Philosophy, Carnegie Mellon University, 135D Baker Hall, 5000 Forbes Avenue Pittsburgh 15213 USA
      su:
        Causal models
        Distribution (Probability theory)
        Mathematical variables
        Parameter estimation
        Bayesian analysis
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          Causal models
          Distribution (Probability theory)
          Mathematical variables
          Parameter estimation
          Bayesian analysis
      keyword:
        Bayes nets
        Causal inference
        Faithfulness
        Graphical models
      ab: In the causal inference framework of Spirtes, Glymour, and Scheines (SGS), inferences about causal relationships are made from samples from probability distributions and a number of assumptions relating causal relations to probability distributions. The most controversial of these assumptions is the Causal Faithfulness Assumption, which roughly states that if a conditional independence statement is true of a probability distribution generated by a causal structure, it is entailed by the causal structure and not just for particular parameter values. In this paper we show that the addition of the Causal Faithfulness Assumption plays three quite different roles in the SGS framework: (i) it reduces the degree of underdetermination of causal structure by probability distribution; (ii) computationally, it justifies reliable (constraint-based) causal inference algorithms that would otherwise have to be slower in order to be reliable; and (iii) statistically, it implies that those algorithms reliably obtain the correct answer at smaller sample sizes than would otherwise be the case. We also consider a number of variations on the Causal Faithfulness Assumption, and show how they affect each of these three roles.
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    language: English
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