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Single Idea 10375

[filed under theme 26. Natural Theory / C. Causation / 5. Direction of causation ]

Full Idea

The traditional view that the direction of causation is the direction of time has been challenged, by the direction of forking, by overdetermination, by independence, and by manipulation, which all seem to be one-directional features.

Gist of Idea

At least four rivals have challenged the view that causal direction is time direction

Source

Jonathan Schaffer (The Metaphysics of Causation [2007], 1.3.1)

Book Ref

'Stanford Online Encyclopaedia of Philosophy', ed/tr. Stanford University [plato.stanford.edu], p.16

A Reaction

Personally I incline to the view that time is prior, and fixes the direction of causation. I'm not sure that 'backward causation' can be stated coherently, even if it is metaphysically or naturally possible.

The 19 ideas with the same theme [explain the past-to-future direction of causes]:

5861 People assume events cause what follows them [Aristotle]
11207 A cause can exist without its effect, but the effect cannot exist without its cause [Aquinas]
8410 A theory of causal relations yields an asymmetry which defines the direction of time [Reichenbach, by Salmon]
8363 p is a cause and q an effect (not vice versa) if manipulations of p change q [Wright,GHv]
8364 We can imagine controlling floods by controlling rain, but not vice versa [Wright,GHv]
8351 With diseases we easily trace a cause from an effect, but we cannot predict effects [Anscombe]
8413 Cause must come first in propagations of causal interactions, but interactions are simultaneous [Salmon]
15278 Humean accounts of causal direction by time fail, because cause and effect can occur together [Harré/Madden]
8405 A theory of causation should explain why cause precedes effect, not take it for granted [Lewis, by Field,H]
8427 I reject making the direction of causation axiomatic, since that takes too much for granted [Lewis]
8433 There are few traces of an event before it happens, but many afterwards [Lewis, by Horwich]
8393 We can only reduce the direction of causation to the direction of time if we are realist about the latter [Tooley]
8401 Physical laws are largely time-symmetric, so they make a poor basis for directional causation [Field,H]
8400 Identifying cause and effect is not just conventional; we explain later events by earlier ones [Field,H]
8402 The only reason for adding the notion of 'cause' to fundamental physics is directionality [Field,H]
4210 If the concept of a cause says it precedes its effect, that rules out backward causation by definition [Lowe]
10375 At least four rivals have challenged the view that causal direction is time direction [Schaffer,J]
10389 Causal order must be temporal, or else causes could be blocked, and time couldn't be explained [Schaffer,J]
10390 Causal order is not temporal, because of time travel, and simultanous, joint or backward causes [Schaffer,J]