David Lewis aimed to give an account of causation, and in particular, a semantics for the counterfactuals to which his account appeals, that is compatible with backwards causation and time travel. I will argue that he failed, but not for the reasons that have been offered to date, specifically by Collins, Hall and Paul and by Wasserman. This is significant not the least because Lewis’ theory of causation was the most influential theory over the last quarter of the 20th century; and moreover, Lewis’ spirited defence of time travel in the 1970s has shaped philosophers’ approach to time travel to this day.

中文翻译：

---

刘易斯的因果理论允许时间旅行吗？

大卫·刘易斯 (David Lewis) 旨在解释因果关系，尤其是他的解释所吸引的反事实的语义，这与反向因果关系和时间旅行兼容。我会争辩说他失败了，但不是因为迄今为止提供的原因，特别是柯林斯、霍尔和保罗以及沃瑟曼。这一点很重要，因为刘易斯的因果关系理论是 20 世纪最后 25 年最有影响力的理论；此外，刘易斯在 1970 年代对时间旅行的热情辩护塑造了今天的哲学家的时间旅行方法。