Indeterministic Causation and Two Patches for the Pairing Argument

Abstract

The pairing argument aims to demonstrate the impossibility of non‐spatial objects (including minds) standing in causal relations. Its chief premises are (roughly) that causation requires pairing relations between causes and effects and that pairing relations require spatial relations. Critics have argued that the first claim suffers from counterexamples involving indeterministic causation. After briefly rehearsing the pairing argument and the objection from indeterministic causation, I offer two ways of revising the pairing argument to meet the objection from indeterministic causation.

Growing Up in the Land of the Future: Youth Culture and Politics in Brazil, 1920-1985

“…Harriet Martineau (New York: AMS Press, 1979), 463-467. 14 Standley, 87 15 Ibid, 74. 16 Ibid,[103][104] male and one female, through a seven-year program of the seven fundamental sciences mathematics, astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology, physiology, sociology.…”

“…How perfect a human being could become depended on their cultural and environmental milieu 13 , but education, Comte argued, is essentially important and should be "designed to provide opportunity for all." 14 Comte presented his educational agenda in his Système de politique positive, where he discussed the nature of his coming positivist utopia. In Système, Comte proposes a Church of Positivism to guide mankind into the future.…”

“…13 In 1937, as the country prepared for the upcoming presidential election, armed conflicts between Integralists and disenfranchised left-wing dissenters terrorized many Brazilian cities. 14 In this struggle of ideologies, many key government and military leaders attributed the violence and political chaos of the mid-1930s to "aliens," "internationalism," and "foreign ideologies." 15 Such rhetoric coincided with a sense that Europe (the source of these alien philosophies) was past its time and even on the verge of collapse.…”

“…13 Ibid, 168-9. 14 He adopted a plan similar to Giuventu Fascista [sic], the administration of which he considered his totalitarian duty." 45 He was particularly criticized for having invented the stipulation that JB membership be mandatory, which at the time he had argued would prevent it from being partisan.…”