Process causality and asymmetry

Phil Dowe*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

36 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Process theories of causality seek to explicate causality as a property of individual causal processes. This paper examines the capacity of such theories to account for the asymmetry of causation. Three types of theories of asymmetry are discussed; the subjective, the temporal, and the physical, the third of these being the preferred approach. Asymmetric features of the world, namely the entropic and Kaon arrows, are considered as possible sources of causal asymmetry and a physical theory of asymmetry is subsequently developed with special reference to the questions of objectivity and backwards causation.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)179-196
Number of pages18
JournalErkenntnis
Volume37
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Sept 1992
Externally publishedYes

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Process causality and asymmetry'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this