Relativity, Quantum Entanglement, Counterfactuals, and Causation
Abstract
We investigate whether standard counterfactual analyses of causation (CACs) imply that the outcomes of space-like separated measurements on entangled particles are causally related. Although it has sometimes been claimed that standard CACs imply such a causal relation, we argue that a careful examination of David Lewis’s influential counterfactual semantics casts doubt on this. We discuss ways in which Lewis’s semantics and standard CACs might be extended to the case of space-like correlations.
1 Introduction
2 Measurement Outcomes and Counterfactual Analyses of Causation
3 Lewis’s Analysis 1 of Counterfactuals (‘Asymmetry-by-Fiat’)
3.1 Analysis 1
3.2 A frame-relative reading of Analysis 1
3.3 Frame-invariant readings of Analysis 1
3.4 Discussion
4 Lewis’s Analysis 2 of Counterfactuals (‘Closest Worlds’)
5 Extending the Everyday Concept of Cause
6 Conclusion
