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215 | Barry Loewer on Physics, Counterfactuals, and the Macroworld
Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas
What Statistics Can Do to Help Us Understand Why Causes Precede Effects?
The fundamental feature of causation that we all know is that causes precede effects. But how can statistical mechanics help us understand why causes come before effects? Lewis thought he had an answer to that question in a paper called Times Arrow and Counterfactual Dependents. It's one of the great papers of 20th century philosophy, even though it's full of for my money errors. Here's where the idea came in, which has only become sort of accepted now.
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