Causation in a timeless world
pp. 2867-2886
Abstract
This paper offers a new way to evaluate counterfactual conditionals on the supposition that actually, there is no time. We then parlay this method of evaluation into a way of evaluating causal claims. Our primary aim is to preserve, at a minimum, the assertibility of certain counterfactual and causal claims once time has been excised from reality. This is an important first step in a more general reconstruction project that has two important components. First, recovering our ordinary language claims involving notions such as persistence, change and agency and, second, recovering enough observational evidence so that any timeless metaphysics is not empirically self-refuting. However, the project of investigating causation in a timeless setting has a greater relevance than its application to timeless physical theory alone. For, as we show, it can be used to model the assertibility conditions of causal claims more generally.
Publication details
Published in:
(2014) Synthese 191 (12).
Pages: 2867-2886
DOI: 10.1007/s11229-014-0427-0
Full citation:
Baron Sam, Miller Kristie (2014) „Causation in a timeless world“. Synthese 191 (12), 2867–2886.