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    Backward causation is impossible if free choice exists — Carmelics
    Home/Free Will & Foreknowledge
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    Backward causation is impossible if free choice exists

    CausationFree Will & Foreknowledge
    ?Rate how convincing each reason is below to see the overall strength.
    2 reasons for
    1 reason against

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.If an agent can cause a prior event, a second agent could cause a prior event that blocks the first cause, generating an irresolvable causal loop.
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    • 2.Irresolvable causal loops eliminate the agent's ability to do otherwise, which is a necessary condition for libertarian free choice (Kane 1996).
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    • 3.Therefore, backward causation and genuine libertarian free choice cannot coexist in the same causal structure.
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    Reason for 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Backward causation requires that the effect precede its cause temporally, meaning the future state must be fixed before the agent deliberates.
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    • 2.Genuine deliberation, as Kant argues in the Critique of Pure Reason, requires that the future remain genuinely open to the agent at the moment of choice.
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    • 3.A fixed future state that causally determines a prior choice renders that choice a consequence, not an exercise, of freedom.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Backward causation presupposes eternalism
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    • 2.Eternalism entails that future events are already determined
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    • 3.If future events are already determined, free choice is impossible
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    Topics

    Free Will & ForeknowledgeCausation

    Connections

    1 topic

    Moral Responsibility1 linked

    Related

    A fixed future state that causally determines a prior choice renders that choice...Backward causation presupposes eternalismBackward causation requires that the effect precede its cause temporally, meanin...Eternalism entails that future events are already determined
    +6 moreShow less
    Free choice exists (assumed)Genuine deliberation, as Kant argues in the Critique of Pure Reason, requires th...If an agent can cause a prior event, a second agent could cause a prior event th...If future events are already determined, free choice is impossibleIrresolvable causal loops eliminate the agent's ability to do otherwise, which i...Therefore, backward causation and genuine libertarian free choice cannot coexist...

    Similar

    Backward causation implies fatalism and determinism, eliminating free ...81%A choice that is fully determined by prior causes cannot be genuinely ...80%Transeunt causation among substances is impossible79%Backward causation is possible79%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: causation-backwards
    View source passageHide passage
    The intuitive strength of the argument stems from the general assumption that backward causation presupposes an ontologically closed future—a metaphysical position about time usually named eternalism. Hence it is not an argument only against backward causation but against eternalism as well. Suppose it is now already true or false what is going to happen tomorrow; then there must be some future truth-makers that determine that it is now already true or false what is going to happen. The conseque
    Extraction notes

    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (2 for, 1 against)
    Edits
    1 edit