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 | ||||||
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Keywords: | indeterminism; agency; conditional probability; substance-causation | ||||||
Subjects: | Specific Sciences > Mathematics > Epistemology General Issues > Evidence General Issues > Explanation |
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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 |
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Date: | 2020 | ||||||
URI: | https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/17480 |
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