41 research outputs found
Causal Reasoning for Algorithmic Fairness
In this work, we argue for the importance of causal reasoning in creating fair algorithms for decision making. We give a review of existing approaches to fairness, describe work in causality necessary for the understanding of causal approaches, argue why causality is necessary for any approach that wishes to be fair, and give a detailed analysis of the many recent approaches to causality-based fairness
Causal Reasoning for Algorithmic Fairness
In this work, we argue for the importance of causal reasoning in creating
fair algorithms for decision making. We give a review of existing approaches to
fairness, describe work in causality necessary for the understanding of causal
approaches, argue why causality is necessary for any approach that wishes to be
fair, and give a detailed analysis of the many recent approaches to
causality-based fairness
Causal Relevance and Relevant Causation
The interconnectedness of all events in the causal matrix suggests that the so-called informal fallacy of post hoc, ergo propter hoc reasoning is not deductively invalid. It may be preferable then to consider post hoc, propter hoc as violating a pragmatic concept of causal relevance. A leading pragmatic account of relevance defines it as the caused closure of a cognitive agenda, to which it seems necessary to add that such closure be relevantly caused, and not by such contingencies as the inquirer's death or incapacity, magic philosopher's pills or the like. This in turn involves the concept of relevant causation in a vicious circularity. The implication may then be that relevant causation, like time and space as pure forms of intuition in Kant's Transcendental Aesthetic, cannot be defined or reductively characterized in terms of more primitive concepts, let alone derived empirically or pragmatically from the contents of experience or purpose of an action. Causation and causal relevance on this proposal constitute instead part of the mind's innate quasi-metaphysical bedrock of scientific explanatio
Wittgenstein on the foundations of language : A non foundational narration
The primary objective of this paper is to show that for later Wittgenstein, language cannot be based on a pre-linguistic foundation. Following closely on the tracks of the philosopher, it argues that none of the proposed foundations that are claimed to relate language to reality - viz. verbal definitions, ostensive techniques, mental images, quantitative measurement , Fregean thought or intention - is able to sustain its assumed pre-interpretive character. In a dense exegetical engagement with Wittgenstein, the paper lays out that the hallowed pre-interpretive reference taken to underlie the varying modes of interpretations or descriptions is actually a grammatical interplay, where what seems to be the pre-interpretive simple in one game turns out to be an elaborately complex construction in another. In the ultimate analysis, language and behaviour forge a non-foundational blend that internalizes and does not represent a supposedly extra-linguistic reality
On Properties of Update Sequences Based on Causal Rejection
We consider an approach to update nonmonotonic knowledge bases represented as
extended logic programs under answer set semantics. New information is
incorporated into the current knowledge base subject to a causal rejection
principle enforcing that, in case of conflicts, more recent rules are preferred
and older rules are overridden. Such a rejection principle is also exploited in
other approaches to update logic programs, e.g., in dynamic logic programming
by Alferes et al. We give a thorough analysis of properties of our approach, to
get a better understanding of the causal rejection principle. We review
postulates for update and revision operators from the area of theory change and
nonmonotonic reasoning, and some new properties are considered as well. We then
consider refinements of our semantics which incorporate a notion of minimality
of change. As well, we investigate the relationship to other approaches,
showing that our approach is semantically equivalent to inheritance programs by
Buccafurri et al. and that it coincides with certain classes of dynamic logic
programs, for which we provide characterizations in terms of graph conditions.
Therefore, most of our results about properties of causal rejection principle
apply to these approaches as well. Finally, we deal with computational
complexity of our approach, and outline how the update semantics and its
refinements can be implemented on top of existing logic programming engines.Comment: 59 pages, 2 figures, 3 tables, to be published in "Theory and
Practice of Logic Programming
A valid theory on probabilistic causation
In this paper several definitions of probabilistic causation are considered, and their main drawbacks discussed. Current notions of probabilistic causality have symmetry limitations (e.g. correlation and statistical dependence are symmetric notions). To avoid the symmetry problem, non-reciprocal causality is often defined in terms of dynamic asymmetry. But these notions are likely to consider spurious regularities. In this paper we present a definition of causality that does non have symmetry inconsistences. It is a natural extension of propositional causality in formal logics, and it can be easily analyzed with statistical inference. The modeling problems are also discussed using empirical processes.Causality, Empirical Processes and Classification Theory, 62M30, 62M15, 62G20