CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2019
| Author | Bakaiev, Mykola |
|---|---|
| Title | The (Im)possible Ways of History: between Necessity and Contingency |
| Summary | This thesis deals with counterfactual events and overdetermination of events in history in the context of the distinction between necessity and contingency. Contrary to the extreme positions of historical determinism (full necessity) and antideterminism (full contingency), I argue that history is somewhat necessary and somewhat contingent, meaning that some historical events are necessary or close to necessity, while others are contingent or close to contingency. To do that, I start with covering the theory of historical counterfactual events and how to construct them. Then I deal with notions of necessity and overdetermination of events, paying special attention to how close overdetermination of events comes to necessity and whether it can be an argument for historical determinism. Finally, I argue for the connection between overdetermination of events and how specific the description of an event is, while the specificity depends on how much evidence we have to support the description. When there is little evidence to support a single description, underdetermination by evidence happens. I investigate what underdetermination by evidence means for overdetermination of events, counterfactual events and for the overall distinction between necessity and contingency, determinism and antideterminism. The result of my investigation is that history, which holds some uncertainty due to underdetermination by evidence, is neither fully necessary nor fully contingent. |
| Supervisor | Kronfeldner Maria |
| Department | Philosophy MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2019/bakaiev_mykola.pdf |
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