counterfactual
1
8.8
- noun
- /ˌkaʊntərˈfæktʃuəl/
:
contrafactual
- She posed an interesting counterfactual: how different would modern technology be if the internet had been invented earlier?
And and further, you can't rerun the counterfactuals, so you don't really know.
- And and further, you can't rerun the counterfactuals, so you don't really know.
- We might call them counterfactuals or alternate selves, those who who we didn't become.
- It seems that there's a singular nature to Hitler that you could play the counterfactual that if there was no Hitler, you may have not had World War Two.
- What's the first of all, what is counterfactuals and why are they useful?
- What was the calculation that you were making that centers the world of counterfactuals and not really knowing?
- And there's a great article on the Stanford Encyclopedia about this, about counterfactuals by W Star that you you might also want to check out.
- But for example, that one might say the relevant counterfactuals are not the the two that she posed, but that they might.
- Then he turns to talking about the wise person and, and here he has a whole bunch of what we call counterfactuals.
Examples
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To indulge in the counterfactual: I think that we would be better off today had they succeeded.
Academic text (2017) -
Historians often debate the counterfactual: what would have happened if the American Civil War had never occurred?
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And you know, the the counterfactual with no Black Death is very, very, very hard to play.
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Britannica: Another counterfactual: What would the world today look like without computers?
Blog text (23) -
Here's what you want to think about as a counterfactual.
Blog text (7) -
The difference between the baseline and each counterfactual can be interpreted as the excess costs associated with each condition.
Academic text (2011) -
Much of the complexity of impact assessment is associated with obtaining a valid estimate of the latter status, known as the counterfactual because it describes a condition contrary to what actually happened to program recipients.
Academic text (2011) -
Consequently, the estimates for Research Question 3 contain no comparison time series, and the estimated counterfactual is the continuation of the pre-NCLB trend in the public schools.
Academic text (2014) -
The evaluation compared SIF grantees with applicants that had submitted satisfactory SIF applications but did not receive a SIF grant, providing an important counterfactual for the SIF grantee experience.
Academic text (2017) -
In a class about history, we explored a counterfactual scenario where the Roman Empire never fell.
Surface Forms
Morphology
counterfactual = counterfactual (semi-transparent) = counter + fact + ual
The noun is a straightforward conversion from the adjective, and the internal structure 'counter-' + 'fact' + '-ual' is fairly clear, though the specialized logical meaning is not fully predictable.
Etymology
Counterfactual comes from counter- 'against' and fact 'a true thing'. A counterfactual as a noun is a 'what if' statement that imagines what might have happened instead of what actually happened.