202401220811 Status: #idea #🧠 Tags: #epistemology #decision-making #physics # Counterfactuals A counterfactual is one of many given potential states based on the inherent properties and capacities of an object, group of objects, or situation. Typically a counterfactual is the “alternative scenario” that could have happened, counter to the one that did, but [[Chiara Marletto]] argues for a more fundamental, first-principles definition. In everyday thinking, it’s useful to play out the alternative scenarios of a given decision. This is a good forcing function for [[Second-Order Thinking]]. --- # References - [[The Science of Can and Can’t]] - [[TKP-Thomas_Gaynor]]