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    Therefore, the conditional 'had I chosen otherwise, the l... — Carmelics
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    Challenges→Ascribing to humans the power to have broken the laws of nature (in the sense that their different choices would have made Maxwell's equations non-laws) is counterintuitive and not directly supported by Humeanism.

    Therefore, the conditional 'had I chosen otherwise, the laws would differ' is not a bizarre law-breaking power but a trivial consequence of Humeanism itself, as Lewis argued in 'Are We Free to Break the Laws?'

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

    1 perspective
    Reason for
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    • 1.Humeanism defines laws as regularities in actual events, not metaphysical necessities independent of what happens.
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    • 2.If laws are patterns of actual events, then counterfactual scenarios with different choices entail different event-patterns and thus different laws.
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    • 3.This makes free counterfactuals compatible with determinism without requiring agent-caused law-breaking powers.
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    Reasons Against

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    Reason against
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    • 1.Even if laws are regularities, they seem to constrain what happens; saying laws would differ trivializes their explanatory role.
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    • 2.The claim conflates metaphysical possibility (laws could differ) with freedom (I could have broken them), obscuring what free will requires.
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    • 3.If my choice determines the laws retrospectively, the notion that laws explain my behavior becomes circular or explanatorily hollow.
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    Key Terms

    David Lewis(the philosopher who created this theory)
    An influential American philosopher (1941-2001) who developed Counterpart Theory as a way to understand how we talk about objects in different possible worlds.
    Humeanism(Lewis's Humean denial of necessary connections)
    The doctrine denying necessary connections between entirely distinct existences
    conditional(no-truth-value account of conditionals)
    A statement of the form 'if A, B' that involves the supposition that A and tells us nothing about what happens if A is false
    free will(Kant's practical resolution of the third antinomy)
    An exemption from the laws of nature; the power of doing and forbearing
    laws of nature(Dispute between Ellis and Lowe over the modal status of laws)
    Regularities grounded either in essential facts about natural kinds (Ellis) or in the contingent possession of properties by kinds (Lowe)

    Connections

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    Free Will & Foreknowledge1 linked

    Related

    Ascribing to humans the power to have broken the laws of nature (in the sense th...Even if laws are regularities, they seem to constrain what happens; saying laws ...Humeanism defines laws as regularities in actual events, not metaphysical necess...If laws are patterns of actual events, then counterfactual scenarios with differ...
    +3 moreShow less
    If my choice determines the laws retrospectively, the notion that laws explain m...The claim conflates metaphysical possibility (laws could differ) with freedom (I...

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    2 (1 for, 1 against)
    Edits
    1 edit
    This makes free counterfactuals compatible with determinism without requiring ag...