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> Rule 8: Controlling for a causal descendant (partially) controls for the ancestor

perhaps this is a quaint or wildly off base question, but an honest one, please forgive any ignorance:

Isn't this essentiallydefining the partial derivative? Should one arrive at the calculus definition of a partial derivative by following this?

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You probably could if you interpret that sentence very creatively. But I think it's useful to remember that this is mathematics, and words like "control", "descendant" and "ancestor" have specific technical meanings (all defined in the article, I believe).

The technical meaning of that sentence has to do with probability theory (probability distributions, correlation, conditionals), and not so much calculus (differentiable functions, limits, continuity).

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