Series: Logic Seminar

Date: Tuesday, November 16, 1999

Speaker: Lisa A. Reed (Penn State, Linguistics)

Title: Necessary Versus Probable Cause

Time: 2:30-3:20 PM

Place: 122 Thomas Building

Abstract:  

One finds in the systems of natural languages some explicit means of
elaborating not only upon the directness of the causal relationship
believed to exist between two events X and Y (i.e. some means of
specifying just how inevitably event X gives or gave rise to event Y),
but also some manner of indicating just who or what is understood to be
the primary instigator of the caused event. The goal of the present
paper is to explore these notions in detail and arrive at a formal,
logic-based means of capturing them.