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The fact that the parameters or determining values of our open universe have anthropic properties, just as a tree’s parameters have seed properties, constitutes evidence that the cosmic system has human input and output, just as a tree system has seed input and output. From the finding that human life constitutes the cause, and the universe its effect, follows that the law of cause and effect does not cease to apply, as believed in quantum theory.
1. The challenges of quantum mechanics Quantum mechanics introduces us to an unfamiliar and at times puzzling reality. Experimental results suggest that sub-atomic particles can behave in ways that violate classical laws of physics; in quantum entanglement, wave-particle duality, quantum jumps and superposition, to mention only some. A number of interpretations and theories have been offered as attempts to explain such phenomena. Sometimes those interpretations remain openly perplexing, perhaps suggesting that we have to be content with a theory of the world that is deeply counterintuitive. In the extreme case, it might be admitted that the theory makes no sense but is nevertheless true. Philosophers are interested in quantum mechanics but perhaps not primarily because of the challenges it poses for the classical laws of physics. On a more fundamental level, quantum mechanics confronts some of our most basic beliefs about the world. If things can move without passing through intermediate places, or affect one another instantaneously over vast distances, then we must seriously reconsider our assumptions about identity, continuity and causation. If we adopt the naturalistic approach to metaphysics, as more recently defended by Ladyman and Ross (2007), and conclude directly from physical theory to metaphysics, then quantum mechanics seems to challenge some core tenets of our basic ontology. Against such scientific naturalism, we maintain that the physical theory comes already equipped with metaphysical assumptions that we have reasons to reject (see also Andersen and Becker Arenhart 2016). This essay focuses specifically on the notion of causation. There is a line of argument that quantum mechanics is not a causal theory (for one example, see Feynman 1967: 147, though we offer more below). In contrast, we argue that this is not a purely empirical matter but an ontological and conceptual one. To say what causation is would then be a task for philosophy. Certainly, this does not mean that the philosopher can ignore the debates in physics. If a notion of causation has no real application, our ontology might be better off without it. Some do indeed argue that the concept of causation is too confused or ambiguous to be applicable to exact quantum phenomena (Skyrms 1984: 284, Healey 1992: 193). Here, we will first take a closer look at the original debate over causation from classical quantum mechanics. This is because, before accepting quantum mechanics as a counterexample to the central role of causation in science, we should be clear about what it is exactly that is at stake. We then move on to present our preferred theory of causation, based on an ontology of dispositions, and show how this remains unchallenged by arguments from classical quantum mechanics. The dispositional modality plays a crucial part in this argument.
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 2018
Causality has never gained the status of a ‘law’ or ‘principle’ in physics. Some recent literature has even popularized the false idea that causality is a notion that should be banned from theory. Such misconception relies on an alleged universality of the reversibility of the laws of physics, based either on the determinism of classical theory, or on the multiverse interpretation of quantum theory, in both cases motivated by mere interpretational requirements for realism of the theory. Here, I will show that a properly defined unambiguous notion of causality is a theorem of quantum theory, which is also a falsifiable proposition of the theory. Such a notion of causality appeared in the literature within the framework of operational probabilistic theories. It is a genuinely theoretical notion, corresponding to establishing a definite partial order among events, in the same way as we do by using the future causal cone on Minkowski space. The notion of causality is logically completel...
Arxiv preprint physics/9912008, 1999
Abstract: We pursue research leading towards the nature of causality in the universe. We establish the equation of the universe's evolution from the universe-state function and its series expansion, in which causes and effects connect together to construct a linked chain ...
Synthese, 1963
The Statement "x is the cause of y" is usually taken to mean one of two things - either, in common-sense contexts, that the occurrence of x is a "jointly-sutticient condition" 1 for the occurrence of y, where x and y are distinct events (eg the throwing of a stone and the breaking of a ...
Metascience, 2010
While standard quantum theory is empirically extremely successful, it is a measurement theory, making predictions about possible outcomes of measurements. Since the notion of measurement is rather ambiguous, it can not be regarded as a fundamental theory of nature. An alternative theory which is free of this problem and yet reproduces the predictions of standard quantum theory (at least when those are unambiguous) is the de Broglie-Bohm theory. This theory forms the subject of Riggs' book "Quantum Causality".
The concept of 'causality' deciphered with the Universal Philosophical Method (UniPhiM). This root concept was swept away from ontology by Bertrand Russell, then revived by different models: counterfactuals, agentism, probabilism, transfer-with in particular Max Kistler's solution in 2003, the transfer of a conserved quantity. I show how UniPhiM makes the ontological invisibility of causality coincide with the multitude of its teleological appearances. Science uses a pseudo-ontological language that does not access reality per se. The equations do not contain a principle of causality but answer only part of the ontological questions. I show how their acronyms can conceal the principle we are seeking.
It is shown that two models of causality exist. There is dialectic model and evolution model. Two models have mutual tie. It is shown that the interactions must be analysed only within framework of dialectic model. Instantaneous interactions do not contradict dialectic model. The velocity of propagation of interactions is nonsense, and indeterminism is a false branch in philosophy and physics.