Subject: Mathematics Book Title: Bayesian Nets and Causality
Bayesian Nets and Causality
Philosophical and Computational Foundations
Williamson, Jon
, Department of Philosophy, King's College, London
Print publication date: 2004
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: September 2007
Print ISBN-13: 978-0-19-853079-4
doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198530794.001.0001
Abstract:
This book provides an introduction to, and analysis of, the use of Bayesian nets in causal modelling. It puts forward new conceptual foundations for causal network modelling: The book argues that probability and causality need to be interpreted as epistemic notions in order for the key assumptions behind causal models to hold. Under the epistemic view, probability and causality are understood in terms of the beliefs an agent ought to adopt. The book develops an objective Bayesian notion of probability and a corresponding epistemic theory of causality. This yields a general framework for causal modelling, which is extended to cope with recursive causal relations, logically complex beliefs and changes in an agent's language.