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    Home/Original/inverse
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    Inverse View

    It is not the case that David Lewis explicitly built the asymmetry of overdetermination into his account, meaning the framework treats past events as fixed by definition, not discovery.

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    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
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    • 1.The distinction between 'fixed by definition' and 'fixed by discovery' is unclear—both treat the past as causally inert in Lewis's system.
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    • 2.Lewis's actual writings emphasize *semantics* of causation, not metaphysical asymmetry, making the claim about 'explicit building-in' textually questionable.
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    • 3.One could adopt Lewis's counterfactual framework while remaining agnostic about whether the past's fixity is definitional or empirically discovered.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Lewis's counterfactual analysis requires fixing past events as actual background conditions to evaluate what would be true in nearby possible worlds.
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    • 2.If past events were revisable through discovery rather than fixed, counterfactuals about causation would become indeterminate or circular.
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    • 3.Lewis explicitly rejected backward causation and temporal symmetry, which logically requires treating the past as metaphysically closed.
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