Newman, Anthony E. (2025) Causal Loops and Direct Self-Causation. Journal of the American Philosophical Association.
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Abstract
Causal loops are circular chains of causally related events: each link
causes others which in turn cause it. Not only are causal loops widely accepted as coherently conceivable; some are also provably self-consistent as well as seeming genuinely possible according to currently accepted laws of physics. On the common assumption that causation is transitive, each link in any causal loop
would wind up causing itself; but the idea of self-causation is pretty much
universally rejected as incoherent. A popular attempt to resolve this dilemma
distinguishes“direct” from“indirect” self-causation: the direct variety, which
operates without the aid of causal intermediaries, is claimed to be impossible even if the indirect variety isn’t. I argue against this attempted resolution on the
grounds that causal loops themselves, unlike the links that compose them,
should be viewed as directly self-caused; so indirect self-causation via causal
loop is possible only if direct self-causation is as well. An important consequence is the availability of groundbreaking solutions to several longstanding puzzles in philosophy of mind.
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| Item Type: | Published Article or Volume | ||||||
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| Keywords: | causal loops, self-causation, causa sui, free will, consciousness, libertarianism, self-awareness, self-knowledge | ||||||
| Depositing User: | Dr. Anthony E. Newman | ||||||
| Date Deposited: | 28 Nov 2025 12:36 | ||||||
| Last Modified: | 28 Nov 2025 12:36 | ||||||
| Item ID: | 27098 | ||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | Journal of the American Philosophical Association | ||||||
| Official URL: | https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of... | ||||||
| DOI or Unique Handle: | https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-the-american-philosophical-association/article/causal-loops-and-direct-selfcausation/5B4DE9F9DEA48B8B58D923665700EA14 | ||||||
| Date: | 27 November 2025 | ||||||
| URI: | https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/27098 |
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