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This research advances the formal foundations of causal reasoning in AI by introducing a counterfactual-based notion of achievement cause within situation calculus. It addresses limitations in existing frameworks like Halpern and Pearl's account, offering improved expressiveness for determining causes of quantified effects in action histories. The work is significant for developing more robust explainability tools and logical models required for next-generation autonomous systems.
A Counterfactual Cause in Situation Calculus
arXiv:2501.06857v3 Announce Type: replace Abstract: Perhaps the most popular modern formulation of actual causality is the HP account by Halpern and Pearl. Recent advancement has focused on extension of HP account to lift its limited expressiveness, in particular, Batusov and Soutchanski proposed a notion of actual achievement cause in the situation calculus, a rich first-order formalism of actions and changes. Among other things, the first-order nature allows for determining the cause of quantified effects in a given action history therein. While intuitively appealing, Batusov and Soutchanski's account is not defined in a counterfactual perspective. In this paper, we propose a notion of cause based on counterfactual analysis. In the context of action history, we show that our notion of cause generalizes naturally to a notion of achievement cause. We analyze the relationship between our notion of the achievement cause and the achievement cause by Batusov and Soutchanski. Finally, we relate our account of cause to Halpern and Pearl's account of actual causality. Particularly, we note some nuances in applying a counterfactual viewpoint to disjunctive effects, a common thorn in definitions of actual causes.
Abstract:Perhaps the most popular modern formulation of actual causality is the HP account by Halpern and Pearl. Recent advancement has focused on extension of HP account to lift its limited expressiveness, in particular, Batusov and Soutchanski proposed a notion of actual achievement cause in the situation calculus, a rich first-order formalism of actions and changes. Among other things, the first-order nature allows for determining the cause of quantified effects in a given action history therein. While intuitively appealing, Batusov and Soutchanski's account is not defined in a counterfactual perspective. In this paper, we propose a notion of cause based on counterfactual analysis. In the context of action history, we show that our notion of cause generalizes naturally to a notion of achievement cause. We analyze the relationship between our notion of the achievement cause and the achievement cause by Batusov and Soutchanski. Finally, we relate our account of cause to Halpern and Pearl's account of actual causality. Particularly, we note some nuances in applying a counterfactual viewpoint to disjunctive effects, a common thorn in definitions of actual causes.
In Proceedings ICLP 2026, arXiv:2607.17707
Artificial Intelligence (cs.AI)
arXiv:2501.06857 [cs.AI]
(or arXiv:2501.06857v3 [cs.AI] for this version)
EPTCS 450, 2026, pp. 500-514
https://doi.org/10.4204/EPTCS.450.37 DOI(s) linking to related resources
Full text under the publisher's open licence · 205 words
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