Backtracking, Indeterminism, and Minimal Patterns.
According to Lewis, counterfactuals should be evaluated with a weighted similarity relation between possible worlds, when used to analyse causal relations. Lewis is well-known for endorsing a specific desideratum on the similarity relation such that backtracking counterfactuals emerge as false (in s...
| Publicado en: | Philosophia Vol. 53; no. 2; pp. 687 - 711 |
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| Formato: | Artículo |
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Springer Nature
Apr2025
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=187667149&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 187667149 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00483893 1VPF jtl: Philosophia issn: 00483893 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Apr2025 vid: 53 iid: 2 pid: 237 pub: Springer Nature artinfo: ui: 187667149 10.1007/s11406-025-00871-4 ppf: 687 ppct: 24 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 910KB tig: atl: Backtracking, Indeterminism, and Minimal Patterns. aug: au: Zheng, Yujian affil: https://ror.org/01vy4gh70 Department of Philosophy, Shenzhen University, Humanities Building 2402, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, People's Republic of China su: Indeterminism (Philosophy) Counterfactuals (Logic) Lewis, David Causation (Philosophy) Determinism (Philosophy) Metaphysics sug: subj: Indeterminism (Philosophy) Counterfactuals (Logic) Lewis, David Causation (Philosophy) Determinism (Philosophy) Metaphysics keyword: Backtracking counterfactuals Causal reasoning David Lewis Indeterminism Minimal patterns ab: According to Lewis, counterfactuals should be evaluated with a weighted similarity relation between possible worlds, when used to analyse causal relations. Lewis is well-known for endorsing a specific desideratum on the similarity relation such that backtracking counterfactuals emerge as false (in standard contexts, under determinism). I argue against a similar desideratum under indeterminism and diagnose a flaw in what I call 'NB position', a broadly indeterministic extension of the original Lewisian constraint. A central part of my argument, presented as a formal testing case, draws on a notion of minimal patterns of sequential events. I demonstrate that backtracking counterfactuals are justifiable due to a characteristic type of minimal patterns of sequential events allowed by the broadly indeterministic framework accommodating the operations of both deterministic and probabilistic laws. Therefrom also emerges a new heuristic picture about causation. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Philosophia is a copyright of Springer, 2025. All Rights Reserved. item: Philosophia holder: Springer Nature dt: @attributes: year: 2025 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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