How Causal Probabilities Might Fit into Our Objectively Indeterministic World

Synthese 149 (1):1-36 (2006)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

We suggest a rigorous theory of how objective single-case transition probabilities fit into our world. The theory combines indeterminism and relativity in the “branching space–times” pattern, and relies on the existing theory of causae causantes (originating causes). Its fundamental suggestion is that (at least in simple cases) the probabilities of all transitions can be computed from the basic probabilities attributed individually to their originating causes. The theory explains when and how one can reasonably infer from the probabilities of one “chance set-up” to the probabilities of another such set-up that is located far away.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 91,386

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Causal reasoning, causal probabilities, and conceptions of causation.Isabelle Drouet - 2012 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 43 (4):761-768.
Probability, Indeterminism and Biological Processes.Charlotte Werndl - 2012 - In D. Dieks, J. G. Wenceslao, Stephan Hartmann, Michael Stoeltzner & Marcel Weber (eds.), Probabilities, Laws, and Structures. Springer. pp. 263-277.
Causes and mixed probabilities.David Papineau - 1990 - International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 4 (1):79 – 88.
Contrastive statistical explanation and causal heterogeneity.Jaakko Kuorikoski - 2012 - European Journal for Philosophy of Science 2 (3):435-452.
Modularity and the causal Markov condition: A restatement.Daniel M. Hausman & James Woodward - 2004 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 55 (1):147-161.
Can the world be shown to be indeterministic after all?Christian Wuthrich - 2010 - In Claus Beisbart & Stephan Hartmann (eds.), Probabilities in Physics. Oxford University Press. pp. 365--389.
Indeterminism and the causal Markov condition.Daniel Steel - 2005 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 56 (1):3-26.
Metaphysics of causation.John Bigelow & Robert Pargetter - 1990 - Erkenntnis 33 (1):89 - 119.
The aharonov-Bohm effect and the reality of wave packets.Chuang Liu - 1994 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 45 (4):977-1000.
Branching space-time.Nuel Belnap - 1992 - Synthese 92 (3):385 - 434.
Causal probability.John L. Pollock - 2002 - Synthese 132 (1-2):143 - 185.

Analytics

Added to PP
2009-01-28

Downloads
185 (#103,520)

6 months
31 (#102,636)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author Profiles

Nuel Belnap
University of Pittsburgh
Matt Weiner
University of Vermont

References found in this work

Philosophical papers.David Kellogg Lewis - 1983 - New York: Oxford University Press.
The Scientific Image.William Demopoulos & Bas C. van Fraassen - 1982 - Philosophical Review 91 (4):603.
Facing the future: agents and choices in our indeterminist world.Nuel D. Belnap - 2001 - New York: Oxford University Press. Edited by Michael Perloff & Ming Xu.

View all 24 references / Add more references