Conditionals Right and Left: Probabilities for the Whole Family

The fact that the standard probabilistic calculus does not define probabilities for sentences with embedded conditionals is a fundamental problem for the probabilistic theory of conditionals. Several authors have explored ways to assign probabilities to such sentences, but those proposals have come under criticism for making counterintuitive predictions. This paper examines the source of the problematic predictions and proposes an amendment which corrects them in a principled way. The account brings intuitions about counterfactual conditionals to bear on the interpretation of indicatives and relies on the notion of causal (in)dependence.

[1]  D. Lewis Probabilities of Conditionals and Conditional Probabilities , 1976 .

[2]  Frank Jackson,et al.  Two theories of indicative conditionals: Replyto Brian Ellis , 1984 .

[3]  B. V. Fraassen Probabilities of Conditionals , 1976 .

[4]  P. Spirtes,et al.  Causation, prediction, and search , 1993 .

[5]  Anthony Appiah Jackson on the material conditional , 1984 .

[6]  LOCAL AND GLOBAL INTERPRETATIONS OF CONDITIONALS , 2004 .

[7]  Alan Hájek,et al.  The hypothesis of the conditional construal of conditional probability , 1994 .

[8]  Frank Jackson,et al.  On Assertion and Indicative Conditionals , 1979 .

[9]  Michael I. Jordan,et al.  Probabilistic Networks and Expert Systems , 1999 .

[10]  Allan Gibbard,et al.  Two Recent Theories of Conditionals , 1980 .

[11]  William Harper,et al.  Ifs. Conditionals, Belief, Decision, Chance, and Time , 1981 .

[12]  E. W. Adams,et al.  The logic of conditionals , 1975 .

[13]  Henry E. Kyburg,et al.  Conditionals and consequences , 2007, J. Appl. Log..

[14]  C. Hooker,et al.  Foundations of Probability Theory, Statistical Inference, and Statistical Theories of Science , 1976 .

[15]  Michael McDermott,et al.  On the Truth Conditions of Certain 'If-Sentences , 1996 .

[16]  Vann McGee If P, then Q: Conditionals and the Foundations of Reasoning , 1993 .

[17]  Stefan Kaufmann,et al.  Conditioning against the Grain , 2004, J. Philos. Log..

[18]  J. Pearl Causality: Models, Reasoning and Inference , 2000 .

[19]  David Lewis Counterfactual Dependence and Time's Arrow , 1979 .

[20]  Robert Stalnaker Probability and Conditionals , 1970, Philosophy of Science.

[21]  C. Glymour The Mind's Arrows: Bayes Nets and Graphical Causal Models in Psychology , 2000 .

[22]  Richard C. Jeffrey,et al.  Conditionals as random variables , 1994 .

[23]  Anthony Appiah,et al.  Assertion and conditionals , 1986 .

[24]  John L. Pollock Indicative Conditionals and Conditional Probability , 1980 .

[25]  Indicative Conditionals and Conditional Probability: Reply to Pollock , 1980 .

[26]  Dorothy Edgington,et al.  Matter-of-Fact Conditionals , 1991 .

[27]  Joseph Y. Halpern Reasoning about uncertainty , 2003 .

[28]  Brian Ellis,et al.  Two theories of indicative conditionals , 1984 .

[29]  Mark Norris Lance Probabilistic Dependence Among Conditionals , 1991 .

[30]  Vann McGee To tell the Truth about Conditionals , 2000 .

[31]  Vann McGee,et al.  Conditional Probabilities and Compounds of Conditionals , 1989 .

[32]  Wolfgang Spohn,et al.  Bayesian Nets Are All There Is To Causal Dependence , 2001 .

[33]  Ernest W. Adams,et al.  A primer of probability logic , 1996 .

[34]  F. Ramsey General Propositions and Causality , 1931 .

[35]  R. H.,et al.  The Principles of Mathematics , 1903, Nature.