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    Storrs McCall's branching-universe model grounds freedom ... — Carmelics
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    Supports→A player's decision is not as free under eternalism as it would be if the future were ontologically open.

    Storrs McCall's branching-universe model grounds freedom in the objective pruning of future branches, entailing that ontological openness is a necessary condition for genuine alternative possibilities.

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    Key Terms

    Branching-universe model(as the main theory being discussed)
    A way of picturing the future as having many possible paths or branches, like a tree, where each choice creates new branches and closes off others.
    Genuine alternative possibilities(as the condition needed for moral responsibility)
    Real choices that could have gone differently—the idea that when you made a decision, you actually *could have* done something else instead.
    Ontological
    "Ontological" refers to questions about what actually exists or is real. It's concerned with the fundamental nature of being—asking "What kinds of things are there?" rather than "How do we know about them?" For example, an ontological question might be whether numbers, ideas, or God actually exist as real things, or if they're just human inventions.
    Pruning(as the mechanism that grounds freedom)
    The process of cutting away or eliminating branches—in this context, the elimination of possible futures as time passes and actual events occur.

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    Storrs McCall(as the originator of the branching-universe model)
    A philosopher who developed a theory about how the future works—specifically, the idea that multiple possible futures exist, but some get eliminated (pruned) as time moves forward, which is what gives us free will.
    necessary condition(Counterfactual analysis of causation; Mackie 1965, 1974)
    A condition C is necessary for event E if E would not have occurred in the absence of C
    ontological openness(Polkinghorne's interpretation of chaos theory as supporting divine action)
    A genuine indeterminacy in the causal structure of the world itself, as opposed to merely epistemological limits on what observers can know or predict

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    Free Will & Foreknowledge1 linkedMoral Responsibility1 linked

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    A player's decision is not as free under eternalism as it would be if the future...

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