The Principle of the Common Cause

Hofer-Szabó, Gábor; Rédei, Miklós; Szabó, László E.

ISBN 10: 1107019354 / ISBN 13: 9781107019355

Published by Cambridge University Press, 2013

About this Item

First edition, first printing. Fine- hardback issued without dust jacket. One tiny cosmetic corner bump, else presents as new.

Seller Inventory # 011785

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Principle of the Common Cause
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication Date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1107019354
• ISBN 13: 9781107019355
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Fine

About this title

Synopsis

The common cause principle says that every correlation is either due to a direct causal effect linking the correlated entities or is brought about by a third factor, a so-called common cause. The principle is of central importance in the philosophy of science, especially in causal explanation, causal modeling and in the foundations of quantum physics. Written for philosophers of science, physicists and statisticians, this book contributes to the debate over the validity of the common cause principle, by proving results that bring to the surface the nature of explanation by common causes. It provides a technical and mathematically rigorous examination of the notion of common cause, providing an analysis not only in terms of classical probability measure spaces, which is typical in the available literature, but in quantum probability theory as well. The authors provide numerous open problems to further the debate and encourage future research in this field.

About the Authors

Gábor Hofer-Szabó is a Bolyai Research Fellow in the Department of Logic at the Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest. His main fields of research are foundations of quantum mechanics, interpretations of probability and probabilistic causality.

Miklós Rédei is a Reader in the Department of Philosophy, Logic and Methodology of Science at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His research interests are philosophy and foundations of physics.

László E. Szabó is Professor in the Department of Logic, Institute of Philosophy at Eötvös University, Budapest. His research focuses on the philosophy of space and time, causality, the EPR–Bell problem, interpretation of probability and a physicalist account of mathematics.