(Originally posted in March 2021 at https://medium.com/@vishakh/empiricism-and-scientific-change-in-judea-pearls-the-book-of-why-5e77c02a9d8b) Edit: A brief response from Prof. Pearl to this blog post may be found at https://twitter.com/yudapearl/status/1377127158926041089. Several years ago, as a newly-minted college freshman, I learned how the eighteenth century empiricist philosopher David Hume showed that causation isn’t logically necessary. Just because one billiard ball hitting another caused…