Team semantics is a highly general framework for logics which describe dependencies and independencies among variables. Typically, the (in)dependencies considered in this context are properties of sets of configurations or data records. We show how team semantics can be further generalized to support languages for the discussion of interventionist counterfactuals and causal dependencies, such as those that arise in manipulationist theories of causation (Pearl, Hitchcock, Woodward, among others). We show that the “causal teams” we introduce in the present paper can be used for modelling some classical counterfactual scenarios which are not captured by the usual causal models. We then analyse the basic properties of our counterfactual languages and discuss extensively the differences with respect to the Lewisian tradition.
We introduce an extension of team semantics ([13], [22]) which provides a framework for the logic of manipulationist theories of causation based on structural equation models, such as Woodward's ([25]) and Pearl's ([18]); our causal teams incorporate (partial or total) information about functional dependencies that are invariant under interventions. We give a unified treatment of observational and causal aspects of causal models by isolating two operators on causal teams which correspond, respectively, to conditioning and to interventionist counterfactual implication. We then introduce formal languages for deterministic and probabilistic causal discourse, and show how various notions of cause (e.g. direct and total causes) may be defined in them.Through the tuning of various constraints on structural equations (recursivity, existence and uniqueness of solutions, full or partial definition of the functions), our framework can capture different causal models. We give an overview of the inferential aspects of the recursive, fully defined case; and we dedicate some attention to the recursive, partially defined case, which involves a shift of attention towards nonclassical truth values.
Structural equation modelsThe most basic objects in the structural equation modeling approach are variables, which we will denote with capital letters X,Y.... Each variable V can assume values (tipically denoted as v, v , v ...) within a certain range of objects, Ran(V ). Variables are related to each other by structural equations, for example Y := f Y (X 1 , . . . , X n )
We show that a coherent theory of partially ordered connectives can be developed along the same line as partially ordered quantification. We estimate the expressive power of various partially ordered connectives and use methods like Ehrenfeucht games and infinitary logic to get various undefinability results. MSC: 03C80.
Bringing together over twenty years of research, this book gives a complete overview of independence-friendly logic. It emphasizes the game-theoretical approach to logic, according to which logical concepts such as truth and falsity are best understood via the notion of semantic games. The book pushes the paradigm of game-theoretical semantics further than the current literature by showing how mixed strategies and equilibria can be used to analyze independence-friendly formulas on finite models. The book is suitable for graduate students and advanced undergraduates who have taken a course on first-order logic. It contains a primer of the necessary background in game theory, numerous examples and full proofs.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.