The Fate of Causal Structure under Time Reversal
Abstract
What happens to the causal structure of a world when time is reversed? At first glance it seems there are two possible answers: the causal relations are reversed, or they are not. I argue that neither of these answers is correct: we should either deny that time-reversed worlds have causal relations at all, or deny that causal concepts developed in the actual world are reliable guides to the causal structure of time-reversed worlds. The first option is motivated by the instability under intervention of time-reversed dynamical evolutions. The second option is motivated by a recognition of how contingent structural features of the actual world shape, and license the application of, our causal concepts and reasoning strategies.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2204.06740,
title = {The Fate of Causal Structure under Time Reversal},
author = {Porter Williams},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2204.06740},
year = {2022}
}
Comments
16 pages, 1 figure. Forthcoming in special issue of Theoria on Jim Woodward's paper: http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/17419/