Counterfactuals¶
Lewis, D. K. (1973). Counterfactuals. Harvard University Press.
Cited by¶
5 citations across 5 artifacts.
Each citation links to the sentence it supports in the citing article.
Primes¶
- Causality
- Abstract reasoning about causation also reveals its isomorphism to other structures in formal systems: the use of counterfactuals mirrors possible-world semantics in modal logic, the causal graph mirrors Bayesian networks in probabilistic inference, and the recursion between belief and behavior in causal learning mirrors reinforcement-learning value updates.
This sourceDevelops the counterfactual conditional as a variably strict conditional quantifying over the most similar accessible possible worlds; the similarity-ordering fixes a modal claim's meaning.
- Abstract reasoning about causation also reveals its isomorphism to other structures in formal systems: the use of counterfactuals mirrors possible-world semantics in modal logic, the causal graph mirrors Bayesian networks in probabilistic inference, and the recursion between belief and behavior in causal learning mirrors reinforcement-learning value updates.
- Counterfactuals
- Lewis (1973)
This sourceDevelops counterfactual conditionals as quantification over the most similar accessible worlds; the similarity-based accessibility relation fixes a counterfactual's truth (true iff the consequent holds in the nearest antecedent-worlds). Verified support for the possible-worlds analysis, Lewis-vs-Stalnaker multiple-world semantics, and the causation-as-counterfactual-dependence claims.
- Lewis (1973)
- Minimal Modification Principle
- When constructing counterfactual scenarios—imagining alternative worlds where a condition is false—a fundamental principle constrains which alternatives are legitimate: preserve as many true facts as possible about the actual world while varying only the antecedent condition, as Lewis (1973) systematized in his closest-possible-worlds analysis of counterfactuals.
This sourceFoundational treatment of counterfactual conditionals via closest-possible-worlds semantics: a counterfactual is true when its consequent holds at the antecedent-worlds most similar to actuality, formalizing the requirement to preserve actual facts while varying only the antecedent.
- When constructing counterfactual scenarios—imagining alternative worlds where a condition is false—a fundamental principle constrains which alternatives are legitimate: preserve as many true facts as possible about the actual world while varying only the antecedent condition, as Lewis (1973) systematized in his closest-possible-worlds analysis of counterfactuals.
- Modal Reasoning
- The decisive theoretical ingredient is the accessibility relation: a specification of which alternatives count as "live" from a given vantage point, and it is this relation — rather than the operator alone — that fixes what the modal claim means, a point Lewis (1973) makes central in his analysis of counterfactual conditionals as quantification over the most similar accessible worlds.
This sourceDevelops counterfactual conditionals as quantification over the most similar accessible worlds; the similarity-based accessibility relation (not the operator alone) fixes a modal claim's meaning, evaluates the non-actual as non-actual, and underlies both legal but-for causation and the hidden-accessibility-relation character of apparently factual disputes.
- The decisive theoretical ingredient is the accessibility relation: a specification of which alternatives count as "live" from a given vantage point, and it is this relation — rather than the operator alone — that fixes what the modal claim means, a point Lewis (1973) makes central in his analysis of counterfactual conditionals as quantification over the most similar accessible worlds.
- Time
- This requires treating time as a variable dimension along which one can imagine variations, the formal framework Lewis (1973) developed by analyzing counterfactual conditionals as comparisons across closest possible worlds branching at a given temporal index.
This sourceDevelops counterfactual conditionals as quantification over the most similar accessible worlds; the similarity-based accessibility relation (not the operator alone) fixes a modal claim's meaning, evaluates the non-actual as non-actual, and underlies both legal but-for causation and the hidden-accessibility-relation character of apparently factual disputes.
- This requires treating time as a variable dimension along which one can imagine variations, the formal framework Lewis (1973) developed by analyzing counterfactual conditionals as comparisons across closest possible worlds branching at a given temporal index.
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