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What’s a chance event? Contrasting different senses of ‘chance’ with Aristotle’s idea of meaningful unusual accidents

Abstract:

In this article, we present and explain ten different possible meanings of a chance event - some ontological, some epistemic - and provide examples whenever possible. We describe and illustrate more carefully the view of chance (tyche) expressed by Aristotle in his Physics, a demanding and complex notion, and critically contrast it with the other senses examined, attempting to determine any (in)compatibilism.

Keywords:
chance; Aristotle; tyche; automaton

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