c:o/re short-term senior fellow 11/24
I studied philosophy at the University of Helsinki where I became a professor of theoretical philosophy in 1997 after taking my PhD with Jaakko Hintikka on game-theoretical semantics (1991). During 2004-2009 I was Directeur de recherches at IHPST/Paris1/Ecole Normale, and professor of philosophy at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. Currently I am emeritus professor at the University of Helsinki.
A Logical Framework for Counterfactuals and Causal Reasoning
The project is inspired by some earlier work I started in the late 80s (with Jaakko Hintikka). The basic observation was that the linear structure of our standard logical system (first-order logic) makes it inadequate to express certain mathematical and natural language statements which are not only meaningful, but much in use. To overcome this limitation I devised with Hintikka a much stronger logical system (IF-logic). The current project is concerned with the application of logic to causal reasoning. It is inspired by Pearl’s work on causal inferences, whose basic conceptual ingredients consist of associations (observations), actions (interventions) and respectively counterfactuals (Pearl’s “ladder of causation”) modelled in a generalized probabilistic framework (Pearl’s do-calculus). I argue, in the spirit of the earlier project, that this framework cannot express arbitrary combinations of observations, interventions and probabilities. I propose, instead, a logical system which is more adequate for causal reasoning.
Publications (selection)
Fausto Barbero, and Gabriel Sandu. 2024. Multiteam semantics for interventionist counterfactuals: probabilities and causation. In: Journal of Philosophical Logic, pp. 1-41.
Gabriel Sandu. 2024. Simo Knuuttila on Aristotle and Boethius. In: History of mind: Studies in the Philosophy of Simo Knuuttila, edited by Ritva Palmen and Filipe da Silva. Boston/Berlin: de Gruyter, pp. 131-154.
Gabriel Sandu. 2024. The Fallacies of the New Theory of Reference: Some Afterthoughts. In: Acta Philosophica Fennica, vol. 100.
Fausto Barbero, and Gabriel Sandu. 2021. Team semantics for interventionist counterfactuals: observations vs interventions. In: Journal of Philosophical Logic 50, pp. 471-521.
Mann, Allen L., Sandu, Gabriel, and Sevenster, Merlijin. 2011. Independence-friendly logic: A game-theoretic approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
