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    Mellor's argument against backward causation may fail eve... — Carmelics
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    Mellor's argument against backward causation may fail even if his argument against time travel succeeds.

    Causation
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    2 reasons for
    1 reason against

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
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    • 1.Mellor's argument against time travel depends on the impossibility of causal loops, but backward causation need not involve closed causal loops.
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    • 2.Dummett's 1964 analysis of backward causation treats it as asymmetric single-direction influence from effect to cause, structurally distinct from the loop topology Mellor targets.
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    • 3.Without a causal loop, the decision-theoretic paradoxes Mellor invokes—where agents exploit foreknowledge to defeat prior causes—cannot arise to generate his reductio.
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    Reason for 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Mellor's argument against time travel relies on Lewis-style personal time requiring physical continuity of a persisting traveler through the loop.
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    • 2.Backward causation requires only counterfactual dependence running from later to earlier events, a condition Price and Dowe analyze without presupposing any persisting physical medium.
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    • 3.Because the metaphysical commitments of backward causation are weaker than those of time travel, Mellor's resources sufficient to defeat the latter are insufficient to defeat the former.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
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    • 1.Mellor's argument presupposes that the same kind of processes obeying the same kind of macroscopic physical laws enter into both the forward and backward parts of a causal loop.
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    • 2.This assumption may hold for time travel but not for backward causation.
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    • 3.If the assumption does not hold for backward causation, Mellor's argument cannot be extended to rule out backward causation.
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    Causation

    Related

    Backward causation requires only counterfactual dependence running from later to...Because the metaphysical commitments of backward causation are weaker than those...Dummett's 1964 analysis of backward causation treats it as asymmetric single-dir...If the assumption does not hold for backward causation, Mellor's argument cannot...
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    Mellor's argument against time travel depends on the impossibility of causal loo...Mellor's argument against time travel relies on Lewis-style personal time requir...Mellor's argument presupposes that the same kind of processes obeying the same k...This assumption may hold for time travel but not for backward causation.Without a causal loop, the decision-theoretic paradoxes Mellor invokes—where age...

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    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: causation-backwards
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    Moreover, even if one assumes that Mellor were correct in ruling out causal loops a priori, he may be wrong in holding that this impossibility entails the impossibility of time travel as well as backward causation. Mellor’s argument presupposes that it is the same kind of processes obeying the same kind of macroscopic physical laws which enters into both the forward and backward part of the causal loop. This assumption may hold for time travel but not for backward causation.
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    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

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