counterfactuality
Imagined alternative reality
Counterfactuality is the quality of being contrary to what actually happened or exists.
It's the essential feature of statements like If I had left earlier, I wouldn't have missed the train—scenarios that imagine alternatives to reality.
Philosophers and logicians use counterfactuality when analyzing causation, since understanding what would have happened under different conditions helps establish what actually caused an event.
The concept appears in everyday reasoning whenever we consider roads not taken.
Separation from common origin
- fictionImagined narrative work
- fantasyImaginative mental wandering
- speculationUnproven theorizing or risky investment
- daydreamConscious fantasy while awake
Production of effects
- LeibnizBaroque-era polymath philosopher-mathematician
- necessityIndispensable requirement
- contingencyUncertain possible event
- propositionsStatements asserted for consideration
metaphysics · determinism · free-will · accessibility · backtracking · interventionism
Hypothetical scenario query
- scenarioPostulated event sequence
- inferenceConclusion reached through reasoning
- implicationIndirect suggestion or consequence
- consequenceResult of an action
hindsight · regret · blame · near-miss · upward · downward · but-for
Implication structure in logic
- antecedentSomething that precedes
- consequentFollowing as an effect
- unfulfilledNot brought to completion
- unrealizedNot made actual
Verb mood expressing unreality
- moodPrevailing emotional condition
- conditionalDependent on prerequisites
- pluperfectTense for earlier past
- modalityParticular form or type
divergence
Separation from common origin
- fictionImagined narrative work
- fantasyImaginative mental wandering
- speculationUnproven theorizing or risky investment
causation
Production of effects
- LeibnizBaroque-era polymath philosopher-mathematician
- necessityIndispensable requirement
- contingencyUncertain possible event
propositions · metaphysics · determinism · free-will · accessibility · backtracking · interventionism
what-if
Hypothetical scenario query
- scenarioPostulated event sequence
- inferenceConclusion reached through reasoning
- implicationIndirect suggestion or consequence
consequence · hindsight · regret · blame · near-miss · upward · downward · but-for
if-then
Implication structure in logic
- antecedentSomething that precedes
- consequentFollowing as an effect
- unfulfilledNot brought to completion
subjunctive
Verb mood expressing unreality
- moodPrevailing emotional condition
- conditionalDependent on prerequisites
- pluperfectTense for earlier past
counterfactualityfactuality
Adherence to truth
actuality · reality · factualness · truthfulness · what is
counterfactualityactuality
State of existing fact
necessity · inevitability · what happened · what is · certainty
counterfactual, counterfactuals, counter, fact, facts, factual, factually, factuality, factorial