Saudek, Daniel
(2021)
Implication as inclusion and the causal asymmetry.
[Preprint]
Abstract
How does causation in the physical world relate to implication in logic? This article presents implication as fundamentally a relation of inclusion between propositions. Given this, it is argued that an event cannot “causally imply” another, also given the laws of nature. Then, by applying the notion of inclusion to physical objects, a relation “possible with respect to” is developed, which generates a partial order on sets of such objects and is independent of time. Based on this, it is shown that changes of physical objects in time (at any rate, a great many of them) imply, and thus counterfactually depend on, what we call “causes”—an asymmetric dependence which is robust despite the perspectival nature of the concept of “cause”.
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