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  3. Physical Causation
  • Cited by 343
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
October 2009
Print publication year:
2000
Online ISBN:
9780511570650
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511570650
Series:
Cambridge Studies in Probability, Induction and Decision Theory
Subjects:
Philosophy of Science, Philosophy
Information

Book description

This book, published in 2000, is a clear account of causation based firmly in contemporary science. Dowe discusses in a systematic way, a positive account of causation: the conserved quantities account of causal processes which he has been developing over the last ten years. The book describes causal processes and interactions in terms of conserved quantities: a causal process is the worldline of an object which possesses a conserved quantity, and a causal interaction involves the exchange of conserved quantities. Further, things that are properly called cause and effect are appropriately connected by a set of causal processes and interactions. The distinction between cause and effect is explained in terms of a version of the fork theory: the direction of a certain kind of ordered pattern of events in the world. This particular version has the virtue that it allows for the possibility of backwards causation, and therefore time travel.

Reviews

‘This book … contains a detailed analysis of the notion of causality … The author’s favourite solution of the conflict between quantum mechanics and Einstein’s ‘physical reality’ in terms of ‘backward causation’ is fully discussed.’

Source: ASLIB Book Guide

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