Junaid Akbar

LSAT Review
6/18/15
Causation:

Causation:
Causation, Universal Quantifiers and Existential quantifiers all three of them are relationships.
1. UQ is a Sufficiency/Necessity relationship
2. EQ is an Intersection relationship
3. C is a casual relationship

Causation Theory:
1. Causation implies correlation
2. Implies chronology (if theres no chronology, theres no causation)
3. No competing Cause (If A causes B, then it strongly suggests that it wasnt actually C that
caused B).

Correlation:
Fire Fighter Example! Just because Fire fighters and fire are correlated doesnt mean that they
caused it (correlation does not imply causation).
Four ideas under correlation
1) Co-incidence, correlation implies co-incidence. But not the other way around. (happens a few
times)
2) Correlation does not imply causation, but causation implies correlation.
3) Definition of correlation is Empirically observed co-variance.
1. Empirically observed (out in the world)
2. Co-Variance (change that happens in together, can be positive or nor negative)
4) When you see A is correlated or co-incidental with B, then it gives rise to 4 possibilities.
1. A caused B
2. B caused A
3. C caused both A and B (summer caused increase in ice cream sales and drowning)
4. There is no relationship (just happened to happen together) (alternative causes, there
not related, but A has its own causes, and B has its own causes as well)

Chronology:
Does not imply causation
o Example: I wake up at 4am every day and do a sun dance to encourage the sun to rise,
and 30 minutes later, the sun always rises.
o Correlation is there because it happens every single day, and the dance happens before
the sun rises. So even with chronology and correlation it does not apply causation.

Causation Strategy:
1. Always in error (Conclusion or Assumption of Causation)
2. Given Co-incidence (check for competing explanations)
3. Given Correlation (check for chronology, third common cause and data set).
a. Chronology, check to see if the order can be reversed. If A caused B, then check if A
occurred before B. If chronology fails and B occurred before A, then theres no way you
have causation, because causation implies chronology.
b. Third Common Cause, either introduce the 3rd common cause or block it.
c. Data set, check for competing or corroborating data sets. (Depending on if youre
strengthening or weakening the argument).