causat

Causat is a term used in theoretical discussions to denote a particular class of causal relations that are defined by their manipulability through intervention. The word is not part of a formal, universally standardized taxonomy and appears primarily in philosophical essays and causal-inference discourse rather than in established scientific nomenclature.

In its key usage, a causat refers to a factor or variable whose presence or absence can be changed experimentally to observe a corresponding effect on an outcome. This emphasis on intervention aligns with interventionist accounts of causation, where the primary concern is what would happen if we deliberately altered the cause. Causats are often contrasted with mere statistical associations or with explanations that appeal only to underlying mechanisms; in this view, a causat is valuable insofar as changing it yields a detectable change in the outcome.

Origin and status: causat is a neologism circulated within academic and semi-academic writing to discuss the actionable aspect of causation without committing to a full theory of mechanisms. Its usage tends to be pragmatic, focusing on the role of manipulable factors in experiments, policy design, and causal inference.

Critique and reception: some scholars consider causat a useful heuristic for distinguishing actionable causes from non-manipulable correlations. Others argue that the term overlaps with existing concepts such as causal variable, intervention, or manipulandum and offers little added clarity.

See also: causality, causal inference, intervention, do-calculus, manipulation.