On Tue, 7 Oct 2003, BELIS Marianne wrote: }example of the raincoats for which you ask a "causal" solution. Indeed, }the present theories don't seem to be very adequate to solve it.
Ummm. What theories? I thought causal models rather naturally handled this stuff. They've been around since about 1920 (for linear models), assigning degrees of causation, etc. Granted, only recently have people given them a good semantics for determining degree of responsibility after-the-fact, but they have done so. }competitor,improved styling, etc. On each of them we assign a weight in }.... Then we calculate the summ of the weighted strenghts. Sounds like Sewall Wright's path models to me. Put a weight on each arrow, and the resulting effect is the sum of the product of the values times the weights. Apply chain rule for paths of length > 1. -C -- Charles R. Twardy, Res.Fellow, Monash University, School of CSSE ctwardy at alumni indiana edu +61(3) 9905 5823 (w) 5146 (fax) "Incongruous places often inspire anomalous stories." -- S.J. Gould
