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    Carmelics

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    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
    Statements
    321,452
    Perspectives
    108,905
    Topics
    42
    Home/Original/inverse
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    Inverse View

    It is not the case that Performing an act at some possible world is both necessary and sufficient for having the ability to perform that act.

    ?Set your confidence on the premises below to see your aggregate.

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
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    • 1.An agent may perform an act at a possible world by pure luck or accident, without possessing any stable disposition grounding that performance.
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    • 2.Genuine ability requires a reliable causal basis in the agent—not merely that the act occurs somewhere across modal space.
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    • 3.Therefore, possible-world performance is insufficient for ability, since accidental success at a world lacks the dispositional structure ability demands.
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    Reason for 2 of 2
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    • 1.Frankfurt-style cases show that an agent can be unable to do otherwise yet still acts, meaning ability and possible-world performance can come apart under manipulation.
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    • 2.If an intervening mechanism would have ensured the act regardless of the agent's own capacities, the agent's performance at that world does not reflect their ability.
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    • 3.Thus, possible-world performance is not sufficient for ability because external counterfactual guarantors can produce the act independently of what the agent can do.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
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    • 1.Modal analysis (MA) holds that ability is defined in terms of performance across possible worlds.
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    • 2.If an agent performs an act at some possible world, the agent has the ability to perform that act.
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    • 3.If an agent has the ability to perform an act, the agent performs that act at some possible world.
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    Strongest counterpoint
    Explore the most compelling reason on the other side.