Causal Reasoning in Physics

Frisch Mathias

Causal Reasoning in Physics

Abstract:  Many contemporary philosophers of physics (and philosophers of science more general)y follow Bertrand Russell in arguing that  there is no room for causal notions in physics.  Causation, as James Woodward has put it, has a ‘human face’, which makes causal notions sit ill with fundamental theories of physics.  In this talk I examine a range of anti-causal arguments and show that the portrait that the neo-Russellians paint of causation is the face of scientific representations much more generally. Causal notions, I argue, play no less of an important role in physics than they do in other sciences.  I begin by focusing on classical physics. If time permits, I will also discuss examples from quantum physics.