Retrocausality at no extra cost

Synthese 192 (4):1139-1155 (2015)
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Abstract

One obstacle faced by proposals of retrocausal influences in quantum mechanics is the perceived high conceptual cost of making such a proposal. I assemble here a metaphysical picture consistent with the possibility of retrocausality and not precluded by the known physical structure of our reality. This picture employs two relatively well-established positions—the block universe model of time and the interventionist account of causation—and requires the dismantling of our ordinary asymmetric causal intuition and our ordinary intuition about epistemic access to the past. The picture is then built upon an existing model of agent deliberation that permits us to strike a harmony between our causal intuitions and the fixity of the block universe view. I conclude that given the right mix of these reasonable metaphysical and epistemological ingredients there is no conceptual cost to such a retrocausal picture of quantum mechanics.

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Peter W. Evans
University of Queensland

Citations of this work

New Slant on the EPR-Bell Experiment.Peter Evans, Huw Price & Ken Wharton - 2013 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 64 (2):297-324.
Discovering Quantum Causal Models.Sally Shrapnel - 2019 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 70 (1):1-25.
Quantum Causal Models, Faithfulness, and Retrocausality.Peter W. Evans - 2018 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 69 (3):745-774.
On the rational evaluability of future-bias.Wen Yu - forthcoming - Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy.
Introducing the Q-Based Interpretation of Quantum Theory.Simon Friederich - 2024 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 75 (3):769-795.

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References found in this work

Time’s arrow and Archimedes’ point.Huw Price - 1996 - Philosophical and Phenomenological Research 59 (4):1093-1096.
Ontology and ideology.W. V. O. Quine - 1951 - Philosophical Studies 2 (1):11 - 15.

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