Accession Number:

ADA582589

Title:

Graded Causation and Defaults

Descriptive Note:

Technical paper

Corporate Author:

CORNELL UNIV ITHACA NY DEPT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE

Personal Author(s):

• Halpern, Joseph Y.
• Hitchcock, Christopher

Report Date:

2012-08-01

Pagination or Media Count:

39.0

Abstract:

This paper extends the account of actual causation offered by Halpern and Pearl 2005. We show that this account yields the wrong judgment in certain classes of cases. We offer a revised definition that incorporates consideration of defaults, typicality, and normality. The revised definition takes actual causation to be both graded and comparative. We then apply our definition to a number of cases.

Descriptors:

• *DECISION MAKING
• ERRORS
• RANDOM VARIABLES

Subject Categories:

• Cybernetics

Distribution Statement:

APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE