Abstract
Among Reichenbach’s greatest contributions to philosophy was his causal theory of time and its direction (Reichenbach (1928), Reichenbach (1956)), and the probabilistic theory of causation that underpins it. These theories were well ahead of their time and are still by no means uncontentious. But not all the contentious features of Reichenbach’s accounts of causation and probability are essential to his thesis (CT for short) that causation gives time its direction. CT is for example no less consistent with later propensity theories of probability than it is with Reichenbach’s own frequency account; and nor does it entail most of the other disputed features of Reichenbach’s theory of causation.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Block, N., (ed.): 1980, Readings in Philosophy of Psychology Volume 1, Methuen, London.
Davidson, D.: 1967, ‘Causal Relations’, Essays on Actions and Events, 1980, Clarendon Press, Oxford, pp. 149–62.
Dummett, M. A. E.: 1964, ‘Bringing about the Past’, Truth and Other Enigmas, 1978, Duckworth, London, pp. 333–50.
Faye, J.: 1989, The Reality of the Future, Odense University Press.
Gödel, K.: 1949, ‘A Remark about the Relationship between Relativity Theory and Idealistic Philosophy’, in Albert Einstein: Philosopher-Scientist, P. A. Schilpp, (ed.), Open Court, La Salle, Illinois, pp. 557–62.
Kant, I.: 1781, Critique of Pure Reason, English edn, 2nd impression, transl. N. Kemp Smith, 1933, Macmillan, London.
Kingman, J. F. C. and Taylor, S. J.: 1966, Introduction to Measure and Probability, Cambridge University Press.
Mellor, D. H.: 1971, The Matter of Chance, Cambridge University Press.
Mellor, D. H.: 1981, Real Time, Cambridge University Press.
Mellor, D. H.: 1987, The Singularly Affecting Facts of Causation’, in Metaphysics and Morality: Essays in Honour of J. J. C. Smart, P. Pettit et al, (eds.), Blackwell, Oxford, pp. 111–36.
Mellor, D. H.: 1988, ‘On Raising the Chances of Effects’, in Probability and Causality, J. H. Fetzer (ed.), Reidel, Dordrecht, pp. 229–39.
Nagel, T.: 1986, The View from Nowhere, Oxford University Press.
Newton-Smith, W. H.: 1980, The Structure of Time, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London.
Quine, W. V. O.: 1985, ‘Events and Reification’, in Actions and Events, E. LePore and B. P. McLaughlin (eds.), Blackwell, Oxford, pp. 162–71.
Reichenbach, H.: 1928, The Philosophy of Space and Time, English translation, 1958, Dover, New York.
Reichenbach, H.: 1956, The Direction of Time, University of California Press, Berkeley.
Riggs, P. J.: 1990, ‘A Critique of Mellor’s Argument against ‘Backwards’ Causation’, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science (forthcoming).
Robb, A. A.: 1914, A Theory of Time and Space, Cambridge University Press.
Salmon, W. C.: 1984, Scientific Explanation and the Causal Structure of the World, Princeton University Press.
Shoemaker, S.: 1975, ‘Functionalism and Qualia’, Philosophical Studies 27, 291–315.
Sklar, L.: 1977, ‘What Might be Right about the Causal Theory of Time’. Philosophy and Spacetime Physics, 1985, University of California Press, Berkeley, pp. 249–67.
Weir, S.: 1988. ‘Closed Time and Causal Loops: a Defence against Mellor’, Analysis 48, 203–9.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1991 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Mellor, D.H. (1991). Causation and The Direction of Time. In: Spohn, W. (eds) Erkenntnis Orientated: A Centennial Volume for Rudolf Carnap and Hans Reichenbach. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-3490-3_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-3490-3_10
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-010-5543-7
Online ISBN: 978-94-011-3490-3
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive