Counterfactuals
E392409
Counterfactuals is a seminal 1973 philosophical work by David Lewis that develops a rigorous possible-worlds semantics for counterfactual conditionals and has profoundly influenced metaphysics and philosophy of language.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Counterfactuals canonical | 2 |
| Counterfactuals and Comparative Possibility | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T3843096 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Counterfactuals Context triple: [David Lewis, notableWork, Counterfactuals]
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A.
“Counterfactual Reasoning and Learning Systems”
“Counterfactual Reasoning and Learning Systems” is a research work by Léon Bottou that explores how to use counterfactual inference to design and analyze machine learning systems, particularly in interactive and decision-making settings.
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B.
Paradox
Paradox is a relational database management system and development environment originally popular on DOS and Windows, known for its ease of use and integration with Borland’s programming tools.
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C.
Moore's paradox
Moore's paradox is a philosophical problem highlighting the oddity of asserting a sentence like "It is raining, but I don't believe that it is raining," which seems logically consistent yet pragmatically absurd.
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D.
Counterpoint
Counterpoint is a 1968 World War II drama film starring Charlton Heston as an orchestra conductor captured by Nazis, directed by Ralph Nelson.
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E.
Alternate Concepts
Alternate Concepts is a transportation management company known for operating and maintaining urban rail and transit systems in the United States and abroad.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Counterfactuals Target entity description: Counterfactuals is a seminal 1973 philosophical work by David Lewis that develops a rigorous possible-worlds semantics for counterfactual conditionals and has profoundly influenced metaphysics and philosophy of language.
-
A.
“Counterfactual Reasoning and Learning Systems”
“Counterfactual Reasoning and Learning Systems” is a research work by Léon Bottou that explores how to use counterfactual inference to design and analyze machine learning systems, particularly in interactive and decision-making settings.
-
B.
Paradox
Paradox is a relational database management system and development environment originally popular on DOS and Windows, known for its ease of use and integration with Borland’s programming tools.
-
C.
Moore's paradox
Moore's paradox is a philosophical problem highlighting the oddity of asserting a sentence like "It is raining, but I don't believe that it is raining," which seems logically consistent yet pragmatically absurd.
-
D.
Counterpoint
Counterpoint is a 1968 World War II drama film starring Charlton Heston as an orchestra conductor captured by Nazis, directed by Ralph Nelson.
-
E.
Alternate Concepts
Alternate Concepts is a transportation management company known for operating and maintaining urban rail and transit systems in the United States and abroad.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
non-fiction book
ⓘ
philosophical book ⓘ |
| author | David Lewis ⓘ |
| centralConcept |
comparative similarity ordering of worlds
ⓘ
counterfactual analysis of causation ⓘ counterfactual dependence ⓘ similarity between possible worlds ⓘ variably strict conditional ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| field |
analytic philosophy
ⓘ
philosophy of logic ⓘ |
| hasEdition | reprinted editions with corrections ⓘ |
| hasInfluenced |
causation theory
ⓘ
decision theory ⓘ epistemology ⓘ metaphysics ⓘ modal metaphysics ⓘ philosophy of language ⓘ |
| hasPart |
analysis of causation via counterfactual dependence
ⓘ
axiomatization of counterfactual conditionals ⓘ discussion of laws of nature and counterfactuals ⓘ discussion of similarity metrics between worlds ⓘ formal system for counterfactual logic ⓘ treatment of miracles and small violations of laws ⓘ |
| hasReception |
standard reference on counterfactuals
ⓘ
widely regarded as seminal in metaphysics ⓘ widely regarded as seminal in philosophy of language ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| mainTopic |
counterfactual conditionals
ⓘ
metaphysics ⓘ modal logic ⓘ philosophy of language ⓘ possible worlds semantics ⓘ |
| notableFor |
development of similarity-based semantics
ⓘ
influence on possible worlds ontology debates ⓘ rigorous formal semantics for counterfactuals ⓘ systematic treatment of counterfactual conditionals ⓘ |
| philosophicalTradition | analytic tradition ⓘ |
| proposesTheory |
counterfactual theory of causation
ⓘ
possible worlds semantics for counterfactuals ⓘ |
| publicationYear | 1973 ⓘ |
| publisher | Harvard University Press ⓘ |
| relatedWork |
Convention
ⓘ
On the Plurality of Worlds ⓘ |
| timePeriod | 20th-century philosophy ⓘ |
| usedIn |
causal modeling in philosophy
ⓘ
formal epistemology ⓘ philosophy of science ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Counterfactuals Description of subject: Counterfactuals is a seminal 1973 philosophical work by David Lewis that develops a rigorous possible-worlds semantics for counterfactual conditionals and has profoundly influenced metaphysics and philosophy of language.
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: Counterfactuals