Causation and Its Basis in Fundamental Physics

349 Pages·2013·4.401 MB·English

by  Douglas Kutach

CausationandItsBasisinFundamentalPhysics
OXFORDSTUDIESINPHILOSOPHYOFSCIENCE
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CausationandItsBasisinFundamentalPhysics
DouglasKutach
Causation and Its Basis
in Fundamental Physics
DouglasKutach
3
3
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Kutach,Douglas.
Causationanditsbasisinfundamentalphysics/DouglasKutach.
p. cm.—(Oxfordstudiesinphilosophyofscience)
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ISBN978–0–19–993620–5(hardback:alk.paper)—ISBN978–0–19–993621–2(updf)
1.Causality(Physics)2.Physics—Philosophy.I.Title.
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2012039777
9780199936205
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{ contents }
Preface xi
1. EmpiricalAnalysisandtheMetaphysicsofCausation 1
1.1. EmpiricalAnalysis 2
1.1.1. TheDistinctiveFeaturesofEmpiricalAnalysis 9
1.2. EmpiricalAnalysisoftheMetaphysicsofCausation 13
1.2.1. EffectiveStrategies 14
1.3. EmpiricalAnalysisoftheNon-metaphysicalAspectsofCausation 17
1.4. CausationasConceptuallyTripartite 20
1.5. ASketchoftheMetaphysicsofCausation 22
1.6. FundamentalandDerivative 24
1.6.1. TheKineticEnergyExample 25
1.6.2. SomeConstitutivePrinciplesofFundamentality 30
1.7. Abstreduction 34
1.8. STRICTStandardsandRELAXEDStandards 37
1.9. LimitationsontheAspirationsofEmpiricalAnalysis 44
1.10. ComparisonofEmpiricalandOrthodoxAnalysis 45
1.11. Summary 48
part i TheBottomConceptualLayerofCausation
2. FundamentalCausation 53
2.1. Preliminaries 57
2.1.1. Events 58
2.1.2. Laws 64
2.2. Terminance 67
2.2.1. CausalContribution 75
2.2.2. TrivialTerminance 76
2.3. TheSpace-timeArena 79
2.4. ClassicalGravitation 82
2.4.1. GalileanSpace-time 82
2.4.2. TerminantsinClassicalGravitation 83
2.4.3. OverdeterminationinClassicalGravitation 85
2.4.4. InstantaneousCausation 87
2.5. RelativisticElectromagnetism 89
2.5.1. MinkowskiSpace-time 89
2.5.2. TerminantsinRelativisticElectromagnetism 91
2.5.3. ClassicalUnifiedFieldTheory 92
viii Contents
2.6. ContentIndependence 94
2.7. ContinuityandShielding 98
2.8. Transitivity 100
2.9. Determinism 101
2.10. StochasticIndeterminism 104
2.10.1.StochasticLattices 104
2.10.2.AToyTheoryofParticleDecay 105
2.11. Non-stochasticIndeterminism 107
2.11.1.NewtonianIndeterminism 107
2.11.2.ContributionExtended 109
2.12. GeneralRelativity 109
2.12.1.Spatio-temporalIndeterminism 110
2.12.2.ClosedTime-likeCurves 111
2.13. QuantumMechanics 112
2.13.1.TheQuantumArenaanditsContents 112
2.13.2.BohmianMechanics 113
2.13.3.SpontaneousCollapseInterpretations 114
2.13.4.OtherInterpretationsofQuantumMechanics 116
2.14. Summary 116
part ii TheMiddleConceptualLayerofCausation
3. CounterfactualsandDifference-making 121
3.1. GeneralCausation 121
3.2. Counterfactuals 123
3.3. Goodman’sAccountofCounterfactuals 124
3.4. TheNomicConditional 128
3.5. ComparisontoOrdinaryLanguageConditionals 134
3.6. Prob-dependence 135
3.7. ContrastiveEvents 136
3.8. Summary 138
4. DerivativeCausation 140
4.1. Influence 140
4.2. Prob-influence 142
4.3. GeneralCausation 144
4.4. TemporallyExtendedEvents 150
4.5. IdiomaticDifferencesbetweenPromotionandCausation 152
4.6. AspectPromotion 154
4.7. PromotionbyOmission 155
4.8. Contrastivity 155
4.9. Transitivity 157
4.10. Continuity 160
4.11. Shielding 161
4.12. PartialInfluence 162
4.13. Summary 167
Contents ix
5. TheEmpiricalContentofPromotion 168
5.1. ThePromotionExperiment 169
5.2. InsensitivityConsiderations 171
5.3. ThermodynamicsandStatisticalMechanics 175
5.4. TheAsymmetryofBizarreCoincidences 184
5.5. TheAnalogytoThermalandMechanicalEnergy 186
5.6. BroadandNarrowPromotion 187
5.7. InferencesfromEmpiricalDatatoPromotion 193
5.7.1. Simpson’sParadox 194
5.8. WhyThereAreEffectiveStrategies 197
5.9. MechanisticTheoriesofCausation 199
6. BacktrackingInfluence 203
6.1. TheDirectionofInfluence 205
6.2. ProofofCausalDirectness 207
6.3. ASearchforEmpiricalPhenomena 214
6.4. ‘Past-directedthenFuture-directed’Influence 219
7. CausalAsymmetry 225
7.1. TheEmpiricalContentoftheCausalAsymmetry 226
7.2. CausationandAdvancement 230
7.3. AnExplanationoftheAdvancementAsymmetry 232
7.3.1. Prob-influencethroughBacktracking 234
7.3.2. DirectlyPast-directedProb-influence 236
7.3.3. Summary 238
7.4. Pseudo-backtrackingProb-influence 239
7.5. TheEntropyAsymmetryandCausalDirectionality 244
7.6. RecentAlternativeExplanationsofCausalAsymmetry 249
7.6.1. TheAlbert-Kutach-LoewerApproach 250
7.6.2. ThePrice-WeslakeApproach 252
7.6.3. TheForkAsymmetryApproach 254
7.7. FundamentalInfluenceAsymmetry 257
7.7.1. FundamentalInfluenceAsymmetrybyFiat 258
7.7.2. FundamentalInfluenceAsymmetrybyHappenstance 260
7.8. Summary 262
part iii TheTopConceptualLayerofCausation
8. CulpableCausation 265
8.1. TheEmpiricalInsignificanceofCulpability 270
8.1.1. PartI:SingularCausation 271
8.1.2. PartII:GeneralCausation 272
8.2. CulpabilityasaHeuristicforLearningaboutPromotion 275
8.3. CulpabilityasanExplanatoryDevice 277
8.4. CulpabilityasaProxyforTerminanceandPromotion 277
8.5. Commentary 281