A general framework for defining and extending actual causation using CP-logic

Abstract

Since Pearl's seminal work on providing a formal language for causality, the subject has garnered a lot of interest among philosophers and researchers in artificial intelligence alike. One of the most debated topics in this context is the notion of actual causation, which concerns itself with specificas opposed to general -causal claims. The search for a proper formal definition of actual causation has evolved into a controversial debate, that is pervaded with ambiguities and confusion. The goal of our research is twofold. First, we wish to provide a clear way to compare competing definitions. Second, we want to improve upon these definitions so they can be applied to a more diverse range of instances, including non-deterministic ones. To achieve these goals we provide a general, abstract definition of actual causation, formulated in the context of the expressive language of CP-logic (Causal Probabilistic logic). We will then show that three recent definitions by Ned Hall (originally formulated for structural models) and a definition of our own (formulated for CP-logic directly) can be viewed and directly compared as instantiations of this abstract definition, which also allows them to deal with a broader range of examples.

What Caused What? A Quantitative Account of Actual Causation Using Dynamical Causal Networks

“…In summary, current approaches test for counterfactual dependence under a fixed contingency , evaluating a particular counterfactual state . This holds true, even for recently-proposed extensions of contingency-based accounts of actual causation to probabilistic causal models [ 49 , 50 ] (see, however, [ 51 ] for an alternative approach, based on CP-logic).…”

“…The objective of many existing approaches to actual causation is to provide an account of people’s intuitive causal judgments [ 12 , 51 ]. For this reason, the literature on actual causation is largely rooted in examples involving situational narratives, such as “Billy and Suzy throw rocks at a bottle” [ 7 , 12 ], which are then compressed into a causal model to be investigated.…”

Explaining Actual Causation in Terms of Possible Causal Processes

“…The "P" stands for "production", the basic "material" sort of causation of this causal language, similar to production in [13,3]. This concept can be further constrained, e.g., to the notion of active actual P-cause.…”

Counterfactual Causality from First Principles?

“…With the goal of using counterfactual causality for fault ascription -that is, blaming a system failure on one or more component faults -, [13] proposes general constraints on counterfactuals that are sufficient to entail correctness and completeness. Similarly, a general definition of actual causality is proposed and then instantiated in [2]. While none of these axiom systems is strong enough to characterize more than basic properties of counterfactual reasoning, we believe that there is still room for progress.…”