Abstract
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.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 6689-6715 |
Number of pages | 27 |
Journal | Synthese |
Volume | 198 |
Issue number | 7 |
Early online date | 4 Dec 2019 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Jul 2021 |
Keywords
- Causal influence
- Causal specificity
- Causality
- Heritability
- Invariance
- Locality
- Stability