Physical and Metaphysical Counterfactuals

摘要

In a previous publication I showed that counterfactuals grounded in decision making can be given interpretation in terms 'imaging' - a process of 'mass-shifting' among possible worlds. This paper elaborates on this interpretation and shows the converse: imaging can be given an interpretation in terms of a stochastic decision policy in which agents choose actions with certain probabilities. This mapping, from the metaphysical to the physical, should be helpful in assessing whether metaphysically-inspired extensions of current interventional theories are warranted in a given decision making situation.