Hume flirted with the counterfactual analysis of causation, enough to state it, but not enough to defend it. Hume liked the idea because he didn't the alternative, which was that causes are secret powers in nature, hidden to human perception. But where in the world do you look to sense what would have happened to a smoker if he never smoked? If i right now, i can sort out causation, because that is my theory of cosation.
In 1968, David Lewis decides that one truth can unify every theory he's had about the nature of the universe. It is the truth that every possible world is equally real. Lewis not only argues for this view, but devises a distinctive way of arguing for it, a method of doing philosophy that is as influential as his views. Meanwhile, a soon-to-be colleague and rival, Saul Kripke, reads Lewis' paper and fires off eight objections, and on the other side of the world, an entire continent becomes enamored with the life and works of David Kellogg Lewis, an admiration that survives to this day. Guest voices include Frank Jackson, Alan Hajek, John Bigelow, Helen Beebe, Anthony Fischer, Peter Anstey, and David Lewis.
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