A Relic of a Bygone Age? Causation, Time Symmetry and the Directionality Argument

Abstract

Bertrand Russell famously argued that causation is not part of the fundamental physical description of the world, describing the notion of cause as "a relic of a bygone age" (Russell, 1913, p. 1). This paper assesses one of Russell's arguments for this conclusion: the 'Directionality Argument', which holds that the time symmetry of fundamental physics is inconsistent with the time asymmetry of causation. We claim that the coherence and success of the Directionality Argument crucially depends on the proper interpretation of the 'time symmetry' of fundamental physics as it appears in the argument, and offer two alternative interpretations. We argue that: (1) if 'time symmetry' is understood as the time-reversal invariance of physical theories, then the crucial premise of the Directionality Argument should be rejected; and (2) if 'time symmetry' is understood as the temporally bidirectional nomic dependence relations of physical laws, then the crucial premise of the Directionality Argument is far more plausible. We defend the second reading as continuous with Russell's writings, and consider the consequences of the bidirectionality of nomic dependence relations in physics for the metaphysics of causation.

Physics and Causation

“…As Ney recognizes, however, eliminativism about our ordinary concept of causation is out of the question, so that there is still the issue of explaining the asymmetry of folk causation. Thus, it is not clear whether there is more than a verbal dispute with neo‐Russellians here (Farr and Reutlinger ).…”

“…As Ney recognizes, however, eliminativism about our ordinary concept of causation is out of the question, so that there is still the issue of explaining the asymmetry of folk causation. Thus, it is not clear whether there is more than a verbal dispute with neo-Russellians here (Farr and Reutlinger 2013). Frisch (2014) takes issue with the key neo-Russellian claim that the causal direction is to be explained in terms of a more fundamental probabilistic asymmetry.…”

Universality caused: the case of renormalization group explanation

“…Indeed, examples of symmetrical laws include the law of gravity and Newton's law of motion referred to in the billiard ball case (cf. Farr and Reutlinger 2013). Yet, again, many share the belief that it is possible to causally explain using the law of gravity and Newton's laws of motion when discussing events such as apples falling from trees, or billiard balls colliding.…”

Microphysical Causation and the Case for Physicalism

“… There has been criticism of these arguments. See Smith (), Ney (), Frisch (, ), and Farr and Reutlinger (). …”