An event algebra for causal counterfactuals.
"If the tower is any taller than 320 ms, it may collapse," Eiffel thinks out loud. Although understanding this counterfactual poses no trouble, the most successful interventionist semantics struggle to model it because the antecedent can come about in infinitely many ways. My aim is to provide a sem...
| Published in: | Philosophical Studies Vol. 180; no. 12; pp. 3533 - 3566 |
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| Format: | Article |
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Springer Nature
Dec2023
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=173923529&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 173923529 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00318116 4L8 jtl: Philosophical Studies issn: 00318116 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Dec2023 vid: 180 iid: 12 pid: 237 pub: Springer Nature artinfo: ui: 173923529 10.1007/s11098-023-02015-4 ppf: 3533 ppct: 33 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 631KB tig: atl: An event algebra for causal counterfactuals. aug: au: Wysocki, Tomasz affil: https://ror.org/01y9bpm73 Georg-Elias-Müller-Institut für Psychologie, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany su: Counterfactuals (Logic) Algebra Semantics Causation (Philosophy) Reasoning sug: subj: Counterfactuals (Logic) Algebra Semantics Causation (Philosophy) Reasoning keyword: Causal models Causation Counterfactuals Disjunctive events Event algebra Interventionist semantics Might-counterfactuals Semaphore interventions Strong centering Underdeterminism ab: "If the tower is any taller than 320 ms, it may collapse," Eiffel thinks out loud. Although understanding this counterfactual poses no trouble, the most successful interventionist semantics struggle to model it because the antecedent can come about in infinitely many ways. My aim is to provide a semantics that will make modeling such counterfactuals easy for philosophers, computer scientists, and cognitive scientists who work on causation and causal reasoning. I first propose three desiderata that will guide my theory: it should be general, yet conservative, yet useful. Next, I develop a formalization of events in the form of an algebra. I identify an event with all the ways in which it can be brought about and provide rules for determining the referent of an arbitrary event description. I apply this algebra to counterfactuals expressed using underdeterministic causal models-models that encode non-probabilistic causal indeterminacies. Specifically, I develop semaphore interventions, which represent how the target system may be modified from without in a coordinated fashion. This, in turn, allows me to bring about any event within a single model. Finally, I explain the advantages of this semantics over other interventionist competitors. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Philosophical Studies is a copyright of Springer, 2023. All Rights Reserved. item: Philosophical Studies holder: Springer Nature dt: @attributes: year: 2023 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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