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    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
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    Home/Original/inverse
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    Inverse View

    It is not the case that Counterfactual theories can accommodate normative asymmetries by restricting the relevant antecedent to the actual causal history, as Lewis's 'influence' account does.

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    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
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    • 1.The 'actual causal history' restriction is circular: it assumes causal structure to explain causation rather than defining causation independently of normative intuitions.
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    • 2.Even with the influence constraint, Lewis's account struggles to handle cases where actual causal chains are complex or indeterminate, undermining its determinacy for normative judgments.
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    • 3.The asymmetries Lewis targets (like omission) may reflect our practical or moral interests rather than genuine metaphysical features that a causal theory should capture.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
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    • 1.Normative asymmetries (e.g., prevention vs. causation) require distinguishing actual causal paths from merely possible ones to avoid counterintuitive verdicts.
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    • 2.Lewis's influence account grounds this distinction in spatiotemporal continuity and local causal processes, which provides a principled way to select relevant antecedents.
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    • 3.Restricting to actual causal history avoids the problem that counterfactual theories otherwise treat all logically possible worlds equally, making normative distinctions arbitrary.
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