structure for all areas    |     expand these ideas

26. Natural Theory / C. Causation / 5. Direction of causation

[explain the past-to-future direction of causes]

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