Counterfactuals and Probability
Author | : Moritz Schulz |
Publisher | : Oxford University Press |
Total Pages | : 256 |
Release | : 2017-01-19 |
ISBN-10 | : 9780191089060 |
ISBN-13 | : 0191089060 |
Rating | : 4/5 (60 Downloads) |
Download or read book Counterfactuals and Probability written by Moritz Schulz and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017-01-19 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Moritz Schulz explores counterfactual thought and language: what would have happened if things had gone a different way. Counterfactual questions may concern large scale derivations (what would have happened if Nixon had launched a nuclear attack) or small scale evaluations of minor derivations (what would have happened if I had decided to join a different profession). A common impression, which receives a thorough defence in the book, is that oftentimes we find it impossible to know what would have happened. However, this does not mean that we are completely at a loss: we are typically capable of evaluating counterfactual questions probabilistically: we can say what would have been likely or unlikely to happen. Schulz describes these probabilistic ways of evaluating counterfactual questions and turns the data into a novel account of the workings of counterfactual thought.