Macro-Level and Micro-Level Chances

In Chance in the World: A Humean Guide to Objective Chance. New York, NY, USA: Oup Usa. pp. 163-180 (2018)
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Abstract

This chapter discusses conceptual problems that may arise if we think of the Best System as giving us two (potentially) _different_ chances for the same macroscopic event: one that arises by mathematical entailment out of chancy microphysics, and a second one that is in the system because it supervenes directly on the pattern of events at the macro level. Given the pragmatic approach of HOC, such dual-chance-value situations could exist, though there are formidable conceptual difficulties about how to derive probabilities for macroscopic event-_types_ from micro-level chance laws. It is argued that if such dual-value situations exist in the Best System, one would have reason to apply PP to the macro-level chance rules, but _not_ to the micro-derived chances. The discussion reveals a heretofore hidden limitation of both HOCs themselves, and the validity of the arguments from chapter 4 justifying PP. But the limitation is of no practical consequence.

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Carl Hoefer
Universitat de Barcelona

References found in this work

Humean Supervenience Debugged.David Lewis - 1994 - Mind 103 (412):473--490.
After Physics.David Z. Albert - 2015 - Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
The Facts of Causation.D. H. Mellor - 1995 - Philosophical Quarterly 48 (193):550-552.

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