Causality and realism in the EPR experiment

Erkenntnis 38 (2):169 - 190 (1993)
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Abstract

We argue against the common view that it is impossible to give a causal account of the distant correlations that are revealed in EPR-type experiments. We take a realistic attitude about quantum mechanics which implies a willingness to modify our familiar concepts according to its teachings. We object to the argument that the violation of factorizability in EPR rules out causal accounts, since such an argument is at best based on the desire to retain a classical description of nature that consists of processes that are continuous in space and time. We also do not think special relativity prohibits the superluminal propagation of causes in EPR, for the phenomenon of quantum measurement may very well fall outside the domain of application of special relativity. It is possible to give causal accounts of EPR as long as we are willing to take quantum mechanics seriously, and we offer two such accounts.

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Author Profiles

Hasok Chang
Cambridge University
Nancy Cartwright
London School of Economics

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References found in this work

EPR: Lessons for Metaphysics.Brian Skyrms - 1984 - Midwest Studies in Philosophy 9 (1):245-255.
How to hunt quantum causes.Nancy Cartwright & Martin Jones - 1991 - Erkenntnis 35 (1-3):205 - 231.
Marks and Probabilities: Two Ways to Find Causal Structure.Nancy Cartwright - 1993 - Vienna Circle Institute Yearbook 1:113-119.

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