Difference-Making without Making a Difference
Abstract
Over a series of seven papers, Andreas & Günther have introduced seven definitions of actual causation and have classified them as belonging to three different, competing, types of accounts: factual difference-making, counterfactual difference-making, and regularity-based. I show that their most recent - factual difference-making - definition instantiates all three types, thereby proving that these are distinctions without a difference. I further compare their novel account to the other six acco...
Description / Details
Over a series of seven papers, Andreas & Günther have introduced seven definitions of actual causation and have classified them as belonging to three different, competing, types of accounts: factual difference-making, counterfactual difference-making, and regularity-based. I show that their most recent - factual difference-making - definition instantiates all three types, thereby proving that these are distinctions without a difference. I further compare their novel account to the other six accounts on several crucial examples, revealing that this undermines all seven of their accounts.
Source: arXiv:2606.24832v1 - http://arxiv.org/abs/2606.24832v1 PDF: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2606.24832v1 Original Link: http://arxiv.org/abs/2606.24832v1
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Jun 24, 2026
Artificial Intelligence
AI
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