提出混合动态领域中因果关系的两种等价定义，解决连续与离散变化的因果推理难题。
On the Semantics of Primary Cause in Hybrid Dynamic Domains
- 基于混合时序情景演算，定义两种因果机制。
- 通过反事实检验验证因果贡献，确保逻辑自洽。
- 适用于需要精确因果分析的智能系统设计者。
对实际因果关系的推理是理性研究的核心问题，其历史可追溯至亚里士多德时代，近年已有形式化数学理论出现。我们生活在一个行动引发的变化既包含离散又包含连续的混合动态世界。尽管实际因果研究广泛，但针对连续变化的因果分析仍较少。本文在混合动作理论框架——混合时序情景演算中，提出了两种主因定义：一种为基础性定义，另一种通过贡献形式化因果，并可通过改进的“若非……则不”反事实测试进行验证。我们证明了这两种定义在逻辑上等价。进一步地，我们的因果定义展现出若干符合直觉的性质。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Reasoning about actual causes of observed effects is fundamental to the study of rationality. This important problem has been studied since the time of Aristotle, with formal mathematical accounts emerging recently. We live in a world where change due to actions can be both discrete and continuous, that is, hybrid. Yet, despite extensive research on actual causation, only few recent studies looked into causation with continuous change. Building on recent progress, in this paper we propose two definitions of primary cause in a hybrid action-theoretic framework, namely the hybrid temporal situation calculus. One of these is foundational in nature while the other formalizes causation through contributions, which can then be verified from a counterfactual perspective using a modified ``but-for'' test. We prove that these two definitions are indeed equivalent. We then show that our definitions of causation have some intuitively justifiable properties.
Thank you to arXiv for use of its open access interoperability. PaperDance 不是 arXiv 官方产品；中文卡片由大模型生成，请以原文为准。