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Articles

Might You Not Have Been You?

J.J.C. Smart on cricket and counterfactuals.

A Kiwi friend of mine told me a good joke after Australia had won successive cricket test matches against New Zealand. She had been lecturing on ethics to police recruits and had told them that one day the Kiwis would win a test against the Aussies. A cheeky recruit said “But we’ll all be sergeants by then, won’t we?” To cheer her up I remarked that perhaps if their brilliant young spin bowler Vettori had not been injured, New Zealand would have won. Of course there is always the glorious uncertainty of cricket. I shall point out that this is nothing compared with the mind-boggling uncertainty of life.

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