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    The new counterfactual theory of causation does not handl... — Carmelics
    Home/Causation
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    The new counterfactual theory of causation does not handle late preemption completely satisfactorily

    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.Lewis's 'influence' account requires grading causal contribution by counterfactual variation, but late preemption cases yield identical influence scores for preempted backup causes.
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    • 2.Ned Hall's distinction between 'dependence' and 'production' shows that counterfactual theories systematically conflate two independent causal concepts, making late preemption structurally unresolvable within a single framework.
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    • 3.A theory that requires ad hoc stipulations about which counterfactual variations 'count' violates the Humean demand for a purely extensional, non-intensional reduction of causal facts.
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    Reason for 2 of 2
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    • 1.Jonathan Schaffer's work on trumping preemption demonstrates that counterfactual theories cannot distinguish causal priority from mere counterfactual sufficiency without invoking irreducibly modal primitives.
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    • 2.In late preemption, both Suzy's and Billy's throws are nomically sufficient for the effect, so any principled selection criterion must appeal to temporal or mechanistic facts that Lewis's purely counterfactual framework explicitly excludes.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
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    • 1.Billy's throw has some degree of influence on the bottle's shattering because if Billy had thrown his rock earlier and differently, the bottle would have shattered earlier and differently
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    • 2.Lewis must dismiss these counterfactual dependencies as too distant to be relevant, but no principled metric of distance in alterations is provided
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    • 3.Similar alterations of Suzy's throw are treated as relevant to Suzy's causal influence, making the asymmetric treatment unprincipled
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    Causation

    Related

    A theory that requires ad hoc stipulations about which counterfactual variations...Billy's throw has some degree of influence on the bottle's shattering because if...In late preemption, both Suzy's and Billy's throws are nomically sufficient for ...Jonathan Schaffer's work on trumping preemption demonstrates that counterfactual...
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    Lewis must dismiss these counterfactual dependencies as too distant to be releva...Lewis's 'influence' account requires grading causal contribution by counterfactu...Ned Hall's distinction between 'dependence' and 'production' shows that counterf...Similar alterations of Suzy's throw are treated as relevant to Suzy's causal inf...

    Similar

    Counterfactual theories of causation rely on effects generally counter...85%The new counterfactual theory of causation does not handle trumping co...85%Therefore, the timing differential between actual and counterfactual e...84%The Stalnaker-Lewis theory of counterfactuals cannot adequately evalua...82%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: causation-counterfactual
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    There is, however, some reason for scepticism about whether the new theory handles the examples of late preemption and trumping completely satisfactorily. In the example of late preemption, Billy’s throw has some degree of influence on the shattering of the bottle. For if Billy had thrown his rock earlier (so that it preceded Suzy’s throw) and in a different manner, the bottle would have shattered earlier and in a different manner. Likewise, the sergeant’s command has some degree of influence on
    Extraction notes

    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

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