In order to understand and assess Max Black’s arguments against the possibility of backwards causation we should re-visit Black’s original Houdini thought-experiment (Black 1956: 52-55). Although the so-called ‘bilking argument’ against backwards causation has been much discussed over the years, commentators have overlooked the fact that Black offers not one but two arguments against the possibility of backwards causation. Moreover, properly formulated, Black’s arguments teach us something important about the strange and complex causal laws which would have to hold in the kind of…
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