What constitutes Causality?

This is a springboard thread, prompted by this exchange with phiwum. It's a derail from the original thread topic (Is this Gap advert racist?) but was interesting to me, and I'd like to explore the concept a bit further.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Emily's Cat Quote: Originally Posted by phiwum (Post 11274689) Well, we probably shouldn't be too distracted here, but the event in question is not the shooting but the injury, and in that respect, the victim played a causal role: he could have been elsewhere, had he chosen to. Sure, and the victim of domestic violence could have "chosen" not to be in the way of the drunken abuser. The victim of a DUI could have "chosen" to not be in the way of the drunk driver. That "choice" that you are relying on requires prescience. So... I think you've stretched the term causal well past it's breaking point here. Quote: Originally Posted by phiwum (Post 11274689) I guess my point is that the term "causally related" is vague, and it is hard to define it precisely enough so that the responsible party is "causally related" to the event, but that those we reasonably think are not responsible are not "causally related". I don't think this is true. I don't think it's particularly vague and definitely not nearly so vague as you've attempted to frame it to be.

Short version: What constitutes a causal relationship between two events, especially as it pertains to actions and outcomes between people. How does it relate to the concepts of responsibility? Does responsibility imply blame?

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