JOURNAL OF DIALECTICS OF NATURE
A Comprehensive, Academic Journal of the Philosophy, History, Sociology and Cultural Studies of Science and Technology
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ZHENG Yujian
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Research Articles
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Path Individuation and Retrospective Grounding Abstract: This paper purports to expound a special (technical) notion of paths. A neglected fundamental fact (especially under indeterminism) is that the path-dependent direction of any diachronic outcome is backward, i.e., later steps depend on earlier ones successively, despite the ineradicable chance in their respective formation. In this paper, a token-oriented retrospective approach is proposed to overcome the limitation of the type-oriented approach in explaining path-related phenomena. My argument for the validity and utility of this approach is largely based on the elements of (PD), a definitional schema for diachronic sequences subject to a recursive counterfactual formula. I explore certain aspects of path individuation that have so far not been discussed, despite (PD)’s formal congeniality with Lewis’s ‘causal chain’. Two basic patterns of path generation are examined: the first is for distinguishing actual vs possible branching paths, while the second introduces a metaphysical theme regarding the retrospective grounding of the causal status of an upstream event by its downstream (joint) effect. A central example of the paper, viz., the Gobang game, is used to illustrate how the token-oriented approach works for path individuation. Key Words: Path individuation; Retrospective grounding; Token-oriented approach; Path dependence; Diachronic difference makingIssue:Volume 47, lssue 12, December 2025Page: 37-51
JOURNAL OF DIALECTICS OF NATURE
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