CORRELATION, CAUSATION AND WRIGHT'S THEORY OF "PATH COEFFICIENTS"

Abstract

We therefore conclude that philosophically the basis of the method of path coefficients is faulty, while practically the results of applying it where it can be checked prove it to be wholly unreliable. The writer believes himself still open-minded on WRIGHT’S proposition, but has an evenm ore intense convictiont hat before that author’s contribution to the theory of partial correlation can be taken seriously he will have to bring forward evidence altogether more cogent in respect of both logic and fact than any he has so far adduced.