timtyler comments on Decision theory: Why Pearl helps reduce “could” and “would”, but still leaves us with at least three alternatives - Less Wrong

30 Post author: AnnaSalamon 06 September 2009 06:10AM

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Comment author: PhilGoetz 02 April 2011 08:10:25PM *  1 point [-]

Counterfactuals don't need to be about impossible things - and agents do calculate what would have happened, if something different had happened. And it is very hard to know whether it would have been possible for something different to happen.

The problem of counterfactuals is not actually a problem. Goodman's book is riddled with nonsensical claims.

What can Pearl's formalism accomplish, that earlier logics could not? As far as I can tell, "Bayes nets" just means that you're going to make as many conditional-independence assumptions as you can, use an acyclic graph, and ignore time (or use a synchronous clock). But nothing changes about the logic.

Comment author: timtyler 02 April 2011 08:52:25PM *  0 points [-]

What can Pearl's formalism accomplish, that earlier logics could not? As far as I can tell, "Bayes nets" just means that you're going to make as many conditional-independence assumptions as you can. But nothing changes about the logic.

I am not sure. I haven't got much from Pearl so far. I did once try to go through The Art and Science of Cause and Effect - but it was pretty yawn-inducing.