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    Some powers are constitutively one-directional: the power... — Carmelics
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    Challenges→Any agent who has the power to do something also has the power not to do that thing.

    Some powers are constitutively one-directional: the power to detonate a bomb, once exercised, forecloses the power not to have detonated it.

    ?Rate how convincing each reason is below to see the overall strength.
    1 reason for
    1 reason against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.Exercises of power that produce irreversible physical states (detonation) necessarily eliminate counterfactual alternatives.
      ?

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    • 2.The ability to reverse or undo an action is conceptually distinct from and required for the power to avoid that action.
      ?

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    • 3.Powers grounded in contingent future possibilities differ fundamentally from powers grounded in accomplished facts.
      ?

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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.The power not to detonate remains real beforehand; that it ceases after detonation reflects temporal facts, not power constitutively.
      ?

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    • 2.All powers become unexercisable after their exercise (you lack the power to press a button twice in one moment), making this unremarkable.
      ?

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    • 3.Calling powers 'one-directional' conflates metaphysical directedness with mere temporal asymmetry in outcomes.
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    Free Will & Foreknowledge1 linkedModality & Possibility1 linked

    Related

    All powers become unexercisable after their exercise (you lack the power to pres...Any agent who has the power to do something also has the power not to do that th...Calling powers 'one-directional' conflates metaphysical directedness with mere t...Exercises of power that produce irreversible physical states (detonation) necess...
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    Powers grounded in contingent future possibilities differ fundamentally from pow...The ability to reverse or undo an action is conceptually distinct from and requi...The power not to detonate remains real beforehand; that it ceases after detonati...

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    Perspectives
    2 (1 for, 1 against)
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