There must be particular causal laws relating preceding e... — Carmelics

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There must be particular causal laws relating preceding events of type A to succeeding events of type B, which are themselves strictly universal and necessary.

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Reasons For

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Reason for

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1.The general causal principle holds that every event must have a cause.
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2.If the general causal principle is true, then particular causal laws must also exist to ground it.
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Reasons Against

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Reason against 1 of 2

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1.Quantum mechanics shows that radioactive decay and other fundamental physical processes are irreducibly probabilistic, with no preceding event type that strictly necessitates the succeeding event.
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2.Nancy Cartwright argues that even classical physics involves ceteris paribus laws holding only in idealized conditions, not strictly universal laws governing event types.
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3.If our best scientific theories describe causal regularities that are probabilistic or heavily qualified, then strict universality and necessity are not required features of particular causal laws.
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