Chance, determinism, and unsettledness

Philosophical Studies 176 (3):781-802 (2019)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

A previously unrecognised argument against deterministic chance is introduced. The argument rests on the twin ideas that determined outcomes are settled, while chancy outcomes are unsettled, thus making cases of determined but chancy outcomes impossible. Closer attention to tacit assumptions about settledness makes available some principled lines of resistance to the argument for compatibilists about chance and determinism. Yet the costs of maintaining compatibilism may be higher with respect to this argument than with respect to existing incompatibilist arguments.

Other Versions

No versions found

Similar books and articles

Compatibilism, Indeterminism, and Chance.Penelope Mackie - 2018 - Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 82:265-287.
Chance and determinism.Roman Frigg - 2016 - In Alan Hájek & Christopher Hitchcock (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Probability and Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Deterministic Chance.Antony Eagle - 2010 - Noûs 45 (2):269 - 299.
Chance and determinism.Roman Frigg - 2016 - In Alan Hájek & Christopher Hitchcock (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Probability and Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Determinism and chance from a Humean perspective.Friedrich Stadler - 2010 - In Thomas Uebel, Stephan Hartmann, Wenceslao Gonzalez, Marcel Weber, Dennis Dieks & Friedrich Stadler (eds.), The Present Situation in the Philosophy of Science. Springer. pp. 351-371.
Determinism and Chance from a Humean Perspective.Roman Frigg & Carl Hoefer - 2010 - In Thomas Uebel, Stephan Hartmann, Wenceslao Gonzalez, Marcel Weber, Dennis Dieks & Friedrich Stadler (eds.), The Present Situation in the Philosophy of Science. Springer. pp. 351--72.
Emergent Chance.Christian List & Marcus Pivato - 2015 - Philosophical Review 124 (1):119-152.
Free Acts and Chance: Why The Rollback Argument Fails.Lara Buchak - 2013 - Philosophical Quarterly 63 (250):20-28.

Analytics

Added to PP
2018-01-15

Downloads
1,110 (#16,724)

6 months
155 (#24,821)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Antony Eagle
University of Adelaide

Citations of this work

Interpretations of probability.Alan Hájek - 2007 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Open Questions and Epistemic Necessity.Brett Sherman - 2018 - Philosophical Quarterly 68 (273):819-840.
Context Sensitivity and Chance.Quinn Harr - 2020 - Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 101 (4):562-581.

Add more citations

References found in this work

Humean Supervenience Debugged.David Lewis - 1994 - Mind 103 (412):473--490.
Objective Becoming.Bradford Skow - 2015 - Oxford: Oxford University Press UK.
Are we free to break the laws?David Lewis - 1981 - Theoria 47 (3):113-21.

View all 33 references / Add more references