Analysing Causality: The Opposite of Counterfactual is Factual
- 1 March 2004
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Taylor & Francis in International Studies in the Philosophy of Science
- Vol. 18 (1) , 3-26
- https://doi.org/10.1080/02698590412331289233
Abstract
Using Jim Woodward's Counterfactual Dependency account as an example, I argue that causal claims about indeterministic systems cannot be satisfactorily analysed as including counterfactual conditionals among their truth conditions because the counterfactuals such accounts must appeal to need not have truth values. Where this happens, counterfactual analyses transform true causal claims into expressions which are not true.Keywords
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