On my current understanding of this post, I think I have a criticism. But I’m not sure if I properly understand the post, so tell me if I’m wrong in my following summary. I take the post to be saying something like the following:
‘Suppose, in fact, I take the action A. Instead of talking about logical counterfactuals, we should talk about policy-dependent source code. If we do this, then we can see that initial talk about logical counterfactuals encoded an error. The error is not understanding the following claim: when asking what would have happened if I had performed some action A* ≠ A, observing that I do A* is evidence that I had some different source code. Thus, in analysing that counterfactual statement, we do not need to refer to incoherent ‘impossible worlds’.
If my summary is right, I’m not sure how policy-dependent source code is a solution to the global accounting problem. This is because the agent, when asking what would have happened if I had done Y, still faces a global accounting problem. This is because the agent must then assume they have some different source code B, and it seems like choosing an appropriate B will be underdetermined. That is, there is no unique source code B to give you a determinate answer about what would have happened if you performed A*. I can see why thinking in terms of policy-dependent source code would be attractive if you were a nonrealist about specifically logical counterfactuals, and a realist about different kinds of counterfactuals. But that’s not what I took you to be saying.
Indeed, it is underdetermined what the alternative source code is. Sometimes it doesn’t matter (this is the case in most decision problems), and sometimes there is a family of programs that can be assumed. But this still presents theoretical problems.
The motivation is to be a nonrealist about logical counterfactuals while being a realist about some counterfactuals.
On my current understanding of this post, I think I have a criticism. But I’m not sure if I properly understand the post, so tell me if I’m wrong in my following summary. I take the post to be saying something like the following:
If my summary is right, I’m not sure how policy-dependent source code is a solution to the global accounting problem. This is because the agent, when asking what would have happened if I had done Y, still faces a global accounting problem. This is because the agent must then assume they have some different source code B, and it seems like choosing an appropriate B will be underdetermined. That is, there is no unique source code B to give you a determinate answer about what would have happened if you performed A*. I can see why thinking in terms of policy-dependent source code would be attractive if you were a nonrealist about specifically logical counterfactuals, and a realist about different kinds of counterfactuals. But that’s not what I took you to be saying.
The summary is correct.
Indeed, it is underdetermined what the alternative source code is. Sometimes it doesn’t matter (this is the case in most decision problems), and sometimes there is a family of programs that can be assumed. But this still presents theoretical problems.
The motivation is to be a nonrealist about logical counterfactuals while being a realist about some counterfactuals.