Logical implication and causality
Judea Pearl, one of the prominent researchers in the logic of causality, argues that current-day mathematics and logic does not have mechanisms to represent causality. And this has caused great confusions in several instances. Let us consider how causality is represented in current day mathematics and logic. One of the most common situations where we interpret causality, is in a mathematical equation. An equation of the form y = f(x) is often interpreted as the value of f(x) causes y to get a given value. This is the interpretation used in several programming languages for example. In a language like C or python, when we say: a = b it means that the value of b causes the variable a to attain a given value. It is not the value of a that changes b, but the value of b that changes a. But mathematically, the sign "=" simply means equality. In mathematics, a = b is the same as saying b = a. This overloading of the "=" symbol causes complications in programming, wh