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1. Introduction 1. Introduction
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2. Quantum Indeterminism? 2. Quantum Indeterminism?
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3. Quantum Non‐Locality? 3. Quantum Non‐Locality?
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3.1 Bell Inequalities 3.1 Bell Inequalities
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3.2 Screening Off 3.2 Screening Off
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3.3 Act/Outcome Correlations? 3.3 Act/Outcome Correlations?
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3.4 Outcome/Outcome Causation? 3.4 Outcome/Outcome Causation?
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4. No Causation? 4. No Causation?
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5. Causal Scepticism? 5. Causal Scepticism?
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6. Backward Causation? 6. Backward Causation?
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Further Reading Further Reading
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References References
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33 Causation in Quantum Mechanics
Get accessRichard Healey is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Arizona. His publications include The Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics (Cambridge University Press, 1989); ‘Chasing Quantum Causes: How Wild is the Goose?’ in Philosophical Topics 20 (1992); and ‘Nonseparable Processes and Causal Explanation’ in Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 25 (1994).
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Published:02 January 2010
Cite
Abstract
There is widespread agreement that quantum mechanics has something radical to teach us about causation. But opinions differ on what this is. Physicists have often taken the central lesson to be that many physical events occur spontaneously, so that a principle of causality is violated whenever an atom emits light, or a uranium nucleus decays, even though nothing that happened beforehand made this inevitable. Feynman urged philosophers to acknowledge that this implication of quantum mechanics undermines the view that causal determinism forms a precondition of scientific inquiry. But while some physicists have denied the implication, most philosophers since Reichenbach have accepted it with alacrity, and sought to develop accounts of causation equally applicable in an indeterministic or a deterministic world.
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