List, Christian (2022) Special-Science Counterfactuals. The Monist, 105 (2). pp. 194-213.
|
Text
SpecialScienceCounterfactuals.pdf Download (540kB) | Preview |
Abstract
On the standard analysis, a counterfactual conditional such as “If P had been the case, then Q would have been the case” is true in the actual world if, in all nearest possible worlds in which its antecedent (P) is true, its consequent (Q) is also true. Despite its elegance, this analysis faces a difficulty if the laws of nature are deterministic. Then the antecedent could not have been true, given prior conditions. So, it is unclear what the relevant “nearest possible worlds” are. David Lewis suggested that they are ones in which a local breach of the laws occurred: a “small miracle”. Others have suggested that they are ones in which the initial conditions were different (“backtracking”). I propose another response. It builds on the idea that the special sciences, where counterfactual reasoning is most common, operate at a higher level of description from fundamental physics, and that the world may behave indeterministically at higher levels even if it behaves deterministically at the fundamental physical one. The challenge from determinism can then be bypassed for many special-science counterfactuals.
| Export/Citation: | EndNote | BibTeX | Dublin Core | ASCII/Text Citation (Chicago) | HTML Citation | OpenURL |
| Social Networking: |
| Item Type: | Published Article or Volume | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Creators: |
|
||||||
| Keywords: | Counterfactuals, conditionals, special sciences, determinism, indeterminism, laws of nature, local miracles, backtracking, David Lewis, levels of description | ||||||
| Subjects: | General Issues > Causation General Issues > Determinism/Indeterminism General Issues > Laws of Nature General Issues > Reductionism/Holism |
||||||
| Depositing User: | Christian List | ||||||
| Date Deposited: | 20 Mar 2022 03:38 | ||||||
| Last Modified: | 20 Mar 2022 03:38 | ||||||
| Item ID: | 20358 | ||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | The Monist | ||||||
| Publisher: | Oxford University Press | ||||||
| Official URL: | https://doi.org/10.1093/monist/onab031 | ||||||
| DOI or Unique Handle: | https://doi.org/10.1093/monist/onab031 | ||||||
| Subjects: | General Issues > Causation General Issues > Determinism/Indeterminism General Issues > Laws of Nature General Issues > Reductionism/Holism |
||||||
| Date: | 9 March 2022 | ||||||
| Page Range: | pp. 194-213 | ||||||
| Volume: | 105 | ||||||
| Number: | 2 | ||||||
| URI: | https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/20358 |
Monthly Views for the past 3 years
Monthly Downloads for the past 3 years
Plum Analytics
Altmetric.com
Actions (login required)
 |
View Item |
![[feed]](http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/style/images/feed-icon-32x32.png){kind=icon}