1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910452486803321

Autore

Hofer-Szabó Gábor

Titolo

The Principle of the common cause / / Gábor Hofer-Szabó, Research Center for the Humanities, Budapest, Miklós Rédei, London School of Economics and Political Science, László E. Szabó, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest [[electronic resource]]

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cambridge : , : Cambridge University Press, , 2013

ISBN

1-139-88874-9

1-107-05901-1

1-107-05773-6

1-107-05554-7

1-107-05450-8

1-139-09434-3

1-107-05665-9

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (vii, 202 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)

Disciplina

122

Soggetti

Causation

Science - Philosophy

Physics - Philosophy

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

The Common Cause Principle -- Common cause extendability of probability spaces -- Causally closed probability theories -- Common common causes -- Common cause extendability of nonclassical probability spaces -- Reichenbachian common cause systems -- Causal closedness of quantum field theory -- Reichenbach's Common Cause Principle and EPR correlations -- Where do we stand?

Sommario/riassunto

The common cause principle says that every correlation is either due to a direct causal effect linking the correlated entities or is brought about by a third factor, a so-called common cause. The principle is of central importance in the philosophy of science, especially in causal explanation, causal modeling and in the foundations of quantum physics. Written for philosophers of science, physicists and



statisticians, this book contributes to the debate over the validity of the common cause principle, by proving results that bring to the surface the nature of explanation by common causes. It provides a technical and mathematically rigorous examination of the notion of common cause, providing an analysis not only in terms of classical probability measure spaces, which is typical in the available literature, but in quantum probability theory as well. The authors provide numerous open problems to further the debate and encourage future research in this field.