Abstract:
David Lewis claims to give an account of causation, and in particular, a semantics for the counterfactuals to which his account appeals, which is compatible with backwards causation and time travel. I will argue that he fails. This is a problem not only for counterfactuals theories of causation, but also for those of us who eschew counterfactual theories of causation but who still might nevertheless want to understand the kinds of backwards, non-backtracking counterfactuals associated with backwards causation.