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Is Race a Cause?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Alexandre Marcellesi
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Abstract

Advocates of the counterfactual approach to causal inference argue that race is not a cause, and this despite the fact that it is commonly treated as such by scientists in many disciplines. I object that their argument is unsound since two of its premises are false. I also sketch an argument to the effect that racial discrimination cannot be explained unless one assumes race to be a cause.

Type
General Philosophy of Science
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 80 , Issue 5 , December 2013 , pp. 650 - 659
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

†

I thank Craig Callender, Nancy Cartwright, Michael Hardimon, Gil Hertshten, and Chris Wüthrich for comments on earlier drafts. I also thank audiences at the PSA 2012 and at the University of California, San Diego, Graduate Philosophy Colloquium. Research for this article was supported by the God’s Order, Man’s Order, and the Order of Nature project (Templeton Foundation).

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