EQUILIBRIUM COUNTERFACTUALS

Counterfactuals, belief changes, and equilibrium refinements

Counterfactuals

Counterfactuals arc a form of commonsense non-monotonic inference that has been of long-term interest to philosophers. In this paper, we begin by describing some of the impact counterfactuals can be exported to have in artif icial intelligence, and by reviewing briefly some of the philosophical conclusions which have been drawn about them. Philosophers have noted that the content of any particu...

Informative Counterfactuals

A single counterfactual conditional can have a multitude of interpretations that differ, intuitively, in the connection between antecedent and consequent. Using structural equation models (SEMs) to represent event dependencies, we illustrate various types of explanation compatible with a given counterfactual. We then formalize in the SEM framework the notion of an acceptable explanation, identi...

Rational Counterfactuals

This paper introduces the concept of rational countefactuals which is an idea of identifying a counterfactual from the factual (whether perceived or real) that maximizes the attainment of the desired consequent. In counterfactual thinking if we have a factual statement like: ‘Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait and consequently George Bush declared war on Iraq‘ then its counterfactuals is: ‘If Saddam...

Useful Counterfactuals

Counterfactual conditional sentences can be useful in artificial intelligence as they are in human affairs. In particular, they allow reasoners to learn from experiences that they did not quite have. Our tools for making inferences from counterfactuals permit inferring sentences that are not themselves counterfactual. This is what makes them useful. A simple class of useful counterfactuals invo...