Taggart, CP (2020) A Response to the Problem of Wild Coincidences. [Preprint]

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Abstract

Derk Pereboom has posed an empirical objection to agent-causal libertarianism: The best empirically confirmed scientific theories feature physical laws predicting no long-run deviations from fixed conditional frequencies that govern events. If agent-causal libertarianism were true, however, then it would be virtually certain, absent ‘wild coincidences’, that such long-run deviations would occur. So, current empirical evidence makes agent-causal libertarianism unlikely. This paper formulates Pereboom’s ‘Problem of Wild Coincidences’ as a five-step argument and considers two recent responses. Then, it offers a different response: The Problem of Wild Coincidences does not show that current empirical evidence makes agent-causal libertarianism unlikely, even if all events are governed by physical laws featuring fixed long-run conditional frequencies and even if agents can ‘overrule’ normal physical laws.

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Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Taggart, CP c.taggart@surrey.ac.uk 0000-0002-0410-7564
Keywords:	indeterminism; agency; conditional probability; substance-causation
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Mathematics > Epistemology General Issues > Evidence General Issues > Explanation
Depositing User:	Dr Christopher Taggart
Date Deposited:	17 Jul 2020 03:55
Last Modified:	17 Jul 2020 03:55
Item ID:	17480
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Mathematics > Epistemology General Issues > Evidence General Issues > Explanation
Date:	2020
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/17480

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