more from Hartry Field

Single Idea 8402

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

Full Idea

Although it is true that the notion of 'cause' is not needed in fundamental physics, even statistical physics, still directionality considerations don't preclude this notion from being consistently added to fundamental physics.

Gist of Idea

The only reason for adding the notion of 'cause' to fundamental physics is directionality

Source

Hartry Field (Causation in a Physical World [2003], 1)

Book Reference

'The Oxford Handbook of Metaphysics', ed/tr. Loux,M /Zimmerman,D [OUP 2005], p.438


A Reaction

This only makes sense if the notion of cause already has directionality built into it, which I think is correct. The physicist might reply that they don't care about directionality, but the whole idea of an experiment seems to depend on it (Idea 8363).

Related Idea

Idea 8363 p is a cause and q an effect (not vice versa) if manipulations of p change q [Wright,GHv]