1 Types of Causality

Summary: Some overviews of causality from different fields

This is just a quick stubbed out note and loose grouping to try and define what is referred to as “causality”.

Basically, there are many different flavors of causality and it is not clear what is meant by them. It confuses me to no end the types of causality that exist – not from a strictly philosophical or quantitative dimension but even in colloquial speech. In my mind, the most accessible and common way of talking about causality is using order theory:

Which could be said in multiple different ways as “A before B”, “B after A”, or “A precedes B”. All it requires is that there is an order between two things. What this order operator, ≤, is exactly and what A and B are do not really matter so much to me.

My friend Oscar Smith and I have spoken about this in the context of differential equations and dynamical systems modelling but I haven’t had much a chance to dig deeper into it. Moreover, Nate Osgood and I have also reflected on the fact that causality can also mean something extremely different in the social and health sciences. And even still in quantum mathematics, there is a whole slew of literature about causality. To me, it seems like every field has a particular subtlety with their definition.

1.1 Causality within Statistics

1.1.1 Persons

1.1.2 Definitions

1.2 Causality within Health Sciences

1.2.1 Persons

1.2.2 Definitions

1.3 Causality within Quantum Mathematics

1.3.1 Persons

1.3.2 Definitions

1.4 Causality within Category Theory

1.4.1 Persons

1.4.2 Definitions

How To Cite

Zelko, Jacob S. Types of Causality. https://jacobzelko.com/notes/aaa-0284/. August 12, 2026.

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