Heritability, causal influence and locality.

Heritability is routinely interpreted causally. Yet, what such an interpretation amounts to is often unclear. Here, I provide a causal interpretation of this concept in terms of range of causal influence, one of several causal dimensions proposed within the interventionist account of causation. An i...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Synthese Vol. 198; no. 15; pp. 6689 - 6716
Autor principal: Bourrat, Pierrick
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Springer Nature Jul2021
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
Descripción
Sumario:Heritability is routinely interpreted causally. Yet, what such an interpretation amounts to is often unclear. Here, I provide a causal interpretation of this concept in terms of range of causal influence, one of several causal dimensions proposed within the interventionist account of causation. An information-theoretic measure of range of causal influence has recently been put forward in the literature. Starting from this formalization and relying upon Woodward's analysis, I show that an important problem associated with interpreting heritability causally, namely the locality problem, amounts, at least partly, to a low invariance and low stability between the genotype/environment and the phenotype of individuals. In light of this, I plead for a causal interpretation of heritability that takes the notions of Woodward's invariance and stability into consideration. In doing so, I defuse naive causal interpretations of heritability.