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Single Idea 23010

[filed under theme 27. Natural Reality / D. Time / 2. Passage of Time / g. Time's arrow ]

Full Idea

An option for accounting for the direction of time would be to appeal to the direction of causation …to the future is the direction towards which there are effects, and the past is the direction towards which there are causes.

Gist of Idea

We could explain time's direction by causation: past is the direction of causes, future of effects

Source

Baron,S/Miller,K (Intro to the Philosophy of Time [2019], 5.6.2)

Book Ref

Baron,S/Miller,K: 'Introduction to the Philosophy of Time' [Polity 2019], p.142

A Reaction

The obvious problem is that we can no longer pick out a cause by saying it 'precedes' its effect. It is not obvious what other criterion can be used to distinguish them (esp. given Hume's regularity account).

The 24 ideas with the same theme [that time seems to have one fixed direction]:

22954 Newtonian mechanics does not distinguish negative from positive values of time [Newton, by Coveney/Highfield]
22908 When one element contains the grounds of the other, the first one is prior in time [Leibniz]
14935 The direction of time is grounded in the direction of causation [Reichenbach, by Ladyman/Ross]
22947 An ordered series can be undirected, but time favours moving from earlier to later [Le Poidevin]
22952 If time's arrow is causal, how can there be non-simultaneous events that are causally unconnected? [Le Poidevin]
22953 Time's arrow is not causal if there is no temporal gap between cause and effect [Le Poidevin]
22951 If time's arrow is psychological then different minds can impose different orders on events [Le Poidevin]
22948 There are Thermodynamic, Psychological and Causal arrows of time [Le Poidevin]
22949 Presumably if time's arrow is thermodynamic then time ends when entropy is complete [Le Poidevin]
22950 If time is thermodynamic then entropy is necessary - but the theory says it is probable [Le Poidevin]
22975 We must explain either the existence of a time direction, or our psychological sense of it [Price,H]
13440 Causation is the power of one property to produce another, and this gives time its direction [Esfeld]
22910 To define time's arrow by causation, we need a timeless definition of causation [Bardon]
22909 We judge memories to be of the past because the events cause the memories [Bardon]
22904 The psychological arrow of time is the direction from our memories to our anticipations [Bardon]
22906 The direction of entropy is probabilistic, not necessary, so cannot be identical to time's arrow [Bardon]
22907 It is arbitrary to reverse time in a more orderly universe, but not in a sub-system of it [Bardon]
19951 Entropy is puzzling, so we may need to build new laws which include time directionality [New Sci.]
20470 Only heat distinguishes past from future [Rovelli]
23003 Static theories cannot account for time's obvious asymmetry, so time must be dynamic [Baron/Miller]
23004 The direction of time is either primitive, or reducible to something else [Baron/Miller]
23005 The kaon does not seem to be time-reversal invariant, unlike the rest of nature [Baron/Miller]
23006 Maybe the past is just the direction of decreasing entropy [Baron/Miller]
23010 We could explain time's direction by causation: past is the direction of causes, future of effects [Baron/Miller]