Difficulties for the Reconciling and Estranging Projects: Some Symmetries

Suppose that Susan did not go to the movies. The reconciling project attempts to show that this plus Determinism does not imply that Susan could not have gone to the movies. The estranging project attempts to show the opposite. A counter-entailment argument is of the form A is consistent with C, and C entails not-B, therefore A does not entail B. An instance of the counter-entailment arguments undermines a central argument for the reconciling project. Another instance undermines a central argument for the estranging project. This is one symmetry. In each case, the natural response to the counter-entailment argument begs the question. This is another symmetry.