causes

IRI: https://spec.industrialontologies.org/ontology/construct/causes

Defined In: https://spec.industrialontologies.org/ontology/core/Core/

Type: Object Property

Range: bfo.BFO_0000015 | construct.Event

Definition

relation between a process or event and another process or event that holds when the first has a post material state that is also a pre material state in virtue of which the second is initiated

Explanatory Notes

This relation represents state-mediated transition causation. It applies when a material state reached through one process or event is also a pre material state of another process or event, and that shared material state is part of how the second process or event is initiated. The shared material state is not merely a state that temporally precedes, meets, starts, or overlaps the second process or event. It is the material state through which the transition represented by the first process or event is linked to the initiation of the second.

Examples

an ignition event causes a combustion process; a collision event causes a deformation process; a valve-opening process causes a fluid-flow process

Formal Axioms

First-Order Logic Axioms

LA1: ∀o,o'(causes(o,o') → ∃m,m',p,p',d,d'(hasPostState(o,m) ∧ hasPreState(o',m) ∧ prescribes(p,o) ∧ hasPostcondition(p,d) ∧ prescribes(p',o') ∧ hasPrecondition(p',d') ∧ prescribes(d,m') ∧ prescribes(d',m') ∧ materialStateHoldsIn(m',m)))

LA2: ∀o,o'(causes(o,o') → ∃t,t'(occupiesTemporalRegion(o,t) ∧ occupiesTemporalRegion(o',t') ∧ (precedes(t,t') ∨ meets(t,t') ∨ temporallyOverlaps(t,t'))))

Semi-Formal Natural Language Axioms

LA1: if o ‘causes’ o’, then there is some material state m that is both a ‘post-state’ of o and a ‘pre-state’ of o’, and there are specifications p and p’ prescribing o and o’ respectively, where a ‘postcondition’ d of p and a ‘precondition’ d’ of p’ prescribe the same material state m’, which ‘holds in’ m

LA2: if o ‘causes’ o’, then o ‘occupies temporal region’ some t and o’ ‘occupies temporal region’ some t’ such that t ‘precedes’, ‘meets’, or ‘temporally overlaps’ t’

Description Logic

constr:causes ⊑ _:topObjectProperty

domain: bfo:process ⊔ constr:Event

range: bfo:process ⊔ constr:Event

SubPropertyOf: _:topObjectProperty

domain: bfo:process or constr:Event

range: bfo:process or constr:Event