On the nature of coincidental events

SALIS, PIETRO MARIA

2015-01-01

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Abstract

It is a common opinion that chance events could not be understood according to causal explanations. Converse-ly, according to a causal view of chance, intersections between independent causal chains originate accidental events, called »coincidences«. The present study takes into proper consideration this causal conception of chance and tries to shed new light on it. More precisely, this paper investigates the role of the epistemic aspects in our understanding what coincidences are. In fact, although the independence between the causal lines involved plays a crucial role to understand coincidental events, that condition does not seem suffi-cient to give a satisfactory definition of coincidences. The main target of the present work is to prove that the epistemic aspects of coincidences are, together with the independence between the intersecting causal chains, a constitutive part of coincidental phenomena. Many examples will be discussed throughout this work to highlight the role of epistemic aspects in our understanding the nature of coincidental events.