Do the Laws of Nature Entail Causal Closure? Response to Michael Esfeld
Do the Laws of Nature Entail Causal Closure? Response to Michael Esfeld

Summary/Abstract: In the article ‘The Principle of the Causal Openness of the Physical’ I claim that for an argument from the principle of the causal closure of the physical (PCC) for physicalism one needs a modal version of PCC: ‘There cannot be a physical event that is not necessitated by preceding physical events.’ Michael Esfeld objects that Kim’s and Papineau’s PCC should be understood as the non-modal claim that for any physical event, insofar p has a cause, it has a complete physical cause.

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