{ "model": { "rank": 4415, "code": "thing-q179289", "model_id": "vr.tr.causality", "name": "causality", "purpose": "Let an agent state causal claims with their evidence and strength, and separate causation from correlation, attribution in law and events such as force majeure.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Cross-cutting context", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "XCT", "domain": "XCT.REL", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q179289/", "tier": 2, "score": 75, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "force majeure", "act of God", "Causal explanation", "mechanical failure", "hetu-phala", "Causation in history", "Causation", "retrocausality", "downward causation", "causes of landslides", "precipitating factors", "Proximate and ultimate causation" ], "aliasCount": 12, "merged": 12, "knownIn": 75, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": "vr.tr.causality", "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q179289", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q179289", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-11T05:00:00Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 1, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q179289", "registryId": "vr.tr.causality", "name": "causality", "version": "0.2.0-wave.1", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "XCT.REL" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q179289/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.causality", "name": "causality", "purpose": "Let an agent state causal claims with their evidence and strength, and separate causation from correlation, attribution in law and events such as force majeure.", "definition": "The relation between a cause and its effect, in which one event, state or process contributes to producing another; studied in philosophy, science, statistics, law and history.", "what_it_is_for": "Explaining why things happen, predicting interventions and assigning responsibility.", "affordances": [ "infer it, from experiments, natural experiments or causal models", "test it, with interventions", "attribute it, in law and accident investigation", "explain it, in history and science" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Different from correlation", "Causes can be necessary, sufficient or contributing", "Legal causation uses its own tests", "Force majeure is a legal category for events beyond control" ], "appearance": "Not visible; asserted in explanations and shown in diagrams such as causal graphs.", "visual_identification": [ "Claims such as causes, leads to, results in", "Causal diagrams and directed acyclic graphs", "Legal tests such as but-for causation" ], "physical_properties": [], "families_and_kinds": [ "experimental and observational causal inference", "legal causation: factual and legal", "historical causation", "philosophical accounts: regularity, counterfactual, interventionist", "hetu-phala in Buddhist philosophy" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is confused with", "target": "correlation", "why": "association without cause" }, { "relation": "produces", "target": "consequence", "why": "effects" }, { "relation": "is used in", "target": "law", "why": "liability and responsibility" }, { "relation": "is represented by", "target": "causal model", "why": "graphs and structural equations" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "Legal tests of causation in tort and criminal law", "Force majeure clauses and doctrine in contract law", "Reporting guidelines for causal inference in research" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Inferring cause from correlation", "Ignoring confounders and reverse causation", "Single-cause explanations of complex events", "Blame assigned without evidence" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "claim", "name": "Claim", "description": "What is said to cause what.", "rationale": "Causal claims need precise terms.", "layers": [ { "id": "terms", "name": "Cause and effect", "description": "The two sides.", "findings": [ { "id": "terms-finding", "name": "Claim terms", "description": "Cause and effect defined.", "questions": [ { "text": "What exactly is claimed to cause what?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Is the cause necessary, sufficient or contributing?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "mechanism", "name": "Mechanism", "description": "How it works.", "findings": [ { "id": "mechanism-finding", "name": "Mechanism", "description": "The proposed mechanism.", "questions": [ { "text": "What mechanism links cause and effect?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Is it established or hypothesised?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "evidence", "name": "Evidence", "description": "How causation is shown.", "rationale": "Evidence strength varies greatly.", "layers": [ { "id": "design", "name": "Study design", "description": "Experiment or observation.", "findings": [ { "id": "design-finding", "name": "Evidence design", "description": "The design of the evidence.", "questions": [ { "text": "What kind of evidence supports the claim?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Were confounders addressed?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "strength", "name": "Strength", "description": "Consistency and dose-response.", "findings": [ { "id": "strength-finding", "name": "Strength", "description": "Strength of evidence.", "questions": [ { "text": "How strong and consistent is the evidence?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "text": "Is there a dose-response relationship?", "kind": "measurement" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "law", "name": "Law", "description": "Causation for liability.", "rationale": "Law uses specific causation tests.", "layers": [ { "id": "tests", "name": "Legal tests", "description": "But-for and proximate cause.", "findings": [ { "id": "tests-finding", "name": "Legal test", "description": "The test applied.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which legal test of causation applies?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Does an intervening act break the chain?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "force-majeure", "name": "Force majeure", "description": "Events beyond control.", "findings": [ { "id": "force-majeure-finding", "name": "Force majeure", "description": "Whether an event qualifies.", "questions": [ { "text": "Does this event qualify as force majeure under the contract or law?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "text": "What notice is required?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "communication", "name": "Communication", "description": "Stating causal claims.", "rationale": "Language should match evidence.", "layers": [ { "id": "wording", "name": "Wording", "description": "Causes vs associated with.", "findings": [ { "id": "wording-finding", "name": "Wording", "description": "The strength of language.", "questions": [ { "text": "Does the wording match the strength of evidence?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "text": "What caveats are needed?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "responsibility", "name": "Responsibility", "description": "Blame and fairness.", "findings": [ { "id": "responsibility-finding", "name": "Attribution", "description": "Attribution of responsibility.", "questions": [ { "text": "Is responsibility being attributed fairly on the evidence?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "text": "Who has authority to decide it?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should legal and scientific causation be separate entries?", "How should agents grade the strength of causal claims?", "The registry entry has merged aliases such as force majeure and mechanical failure; should they be split off?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "abstract concept", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a causality, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent state causal claims with their evidence and strength, and separate causation from correlation, attribution in law and events such as force majeure.", "characteristics": { "substance": "abstract", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: force majeure, act of God, Causal explanation, mechanical failure, hetu-phala, Causation in history, Causation, retrocausality, downward causation, causes of landslides, precipitating factors, Proximate and ultimate causation.", "12 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 75 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a causality, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "an abstraction with no physical instance", "physicalCharacter": [ "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "Nothing to see. What is recognised is an instance of it, and which instances count is exactly what is argued about." ], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "force majeure", "act of God", "Causal explanation", "mechanical failure", "hetu-phala", "Causation in history", "Causation", "retrocausality", "downward causation", "causes of landslides", "precipitating factors", "Proximate and ultimate causation" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 75 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 12 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one causality from another, and a causality from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a causality, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a causality, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a causality is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a causality, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a causality, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a causality is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a causality sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a causality, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a causality, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a causality is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a causality from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a causality, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a causality, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a causality is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a causality passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a causality between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a causality, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a causality, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a causality is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a causality, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a causality is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a causality, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a causality, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a causality is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "definitions-in-contest", "name": "Definitions and who holds them", "description": "What causality is taken to mean, and by whom.", "rationale": "When a field disagrees about a concept, the disagreement is the content. A model that picks one definition silently destroys the information.", "layers": [ { "id": "competing-definitions", "name": "Competing definitions", "description": "The main readings and the traditions behind them.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-map", "name": "Definitions and their holders", "description": "Each definition with the school or body that holds it.", "questions": [ { "id": "definition-map-q01", "text": "Which definitions of causality are in use, and which tradition or body holds each?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "definition-map-q02", "text": "What turns on the difference between them in practice?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "operationalisation", "name": "Operationalisation", "description": "How it is measured or applied when it has to be.", "findings": [ { "id": "operational-record", "name": "Measures and proxies", "description": "Instruments and indicators used to stand in for it.", "questions": [ { "id": "operational-record-q01", "text": "How is causality operationalised or measured in practice, and by what instrument?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "id": "operational-record-q02", "text": "What does that operationalisation leave out, and when does that matter?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "instances-and-use", "name": "Instances, use and consequence", "description": "What counts as an instance of causality and what follows from calling something that.", "rationale": "Applying a concept is an act with consequences, so a model must say what the label licenses and what it does not.", "layers": [ { "id": "instances", "name": "What counts as an instance", "description": "Clear cases, borderline cases and non-cases.", "findings": [ { "id": "instance-tests", "name": "Tests for an instance", "description": "What would settle whether something falls under it.", "questions": [ { "id": "instance-tests-q01", "text": "What would settle whether something is an instance of causality?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "id": "instance-tests-q02", "text": "Which borderline cases are argued about, and on what grounds?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "consequence", "name": "Consequence of application", "description": "Rights, duties or decisions that follow from the label.", "findings": [ { "id": "consequence-record", "name": "What the label licenses", "description": "What an agent may do once something is classified this way.", "questions": [ { "id": "consequence-record-q01", "text": "What follows practically once something is treated as causality?", "kind": "action" }, { "id": "consequence-record-q02", "text": "What must an agent not infer from the label alone?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a causality came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a causality and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a causality, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a causality, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a causality is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a causality is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a causality, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a causality, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a causality is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 5, "layers": 10, "findings": 12, "questions": 32 } } } }