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

    It is not the case that The Stalnaker-Lewis theory of counterfactuals cannot adequately evaluate counterfactuals that would represent backward causation.

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    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
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    • 1.The Stalnaker-Lewis theory evaluates counterfactuals by stipulating that the closest possible world is identical to the actual world up to the time of the antecedent event c.
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    • 2.If event e occurs before event c, then any possible world identical to the actual world up to c necessarily includes the occurrence of e.
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    • 3.Therefore, there is no possible world closer to the actual world that includes c but not e.
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
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    • 1.Lewis's similarity metric for possible worlds privileges spatiotemporal continuity and local miracles, which structurally presupposes forward temporal asymmetry.
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    • 2.David Lewis explicitly built the asymmetry of overdetermination into his account, meaning the framework treats past events as fixed by definition, not discovery.
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    • 3.Any world where backward causation holds requires reconceiving the similarity metric itself, making the theory question-begging against backward causation from the outset.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
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    • 1.Price and Dowe argue that causal counterfactuals require a notion of intervention, and interventions on future causes of past effects are incoherent under standard agency theories.
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    • 2.The Stalnaker-Lewis framework cannot distinguish between a backtracking counterfactual and a genuine backward-causal counterfactual, collapsing a crucial explanatory distinction.
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