Murgueitio Ramírez, Sebastián and Read, James and Páez, Andrés (2023) Causation and the conservation of energy in general relativity. [Preprint]

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Abstract

Consensus in the contemporary philosophical literature has it that conserved quantity theories of causation such as that of Dowe (2000)---according to which causation is to be analysed in terms of the exchange of conserved quantities (e.g.,~energy)---face damning problems when confronted with contemporary physics, where the notion of conservation becomes delicate. In particular, in general relativity it is often claimed that there simply are no conservation laws for (say) total-stress energy. If this claim is correct, it is difficult to see how conserved quantity theories of causation could survive. In this article, we resist the above consensus and defend conserved quantity theories from this conclusion, at least when focusing on the apparent problems posed by general relativity. We argue that this approach to causation can continue to be defended in general relativity, once one appreciates (a) the availability of approximate symmetries in generic general relativistic spacetimes, and (b) the role of modelling and idealisation in that theory. Given these points, conserved quantity theories of causation must stand or fall on other grounds.

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Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Murgueitio Ramírez, Sebastián smurguei@purdue.edu 0000-0003-0035-0150 Read, James james.read@philosophy.ox.ac.uk Páez, Andrés apaez@uniandes.edu.co 0000-0002-4602-7490
Additional Information:	Forthcoming in The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science
Keywords:	General relativity, energy, causation, approximate symmetry, conserved quantities, conservation laws
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Physics > Astrophysics General Issues > Causation Specific Sciences > Physics > Relativity Theory Specific Sciences > Physics > Symmetries/Invariances
Depositing User:	Dr. Sebastián Murgueitio Ramírez
Date Deposited:	21 Jul 2023 14:16
Last Modified:	21 Jul 2023 14:16
Item ID:	22330
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Physics > Astrophysics General Issues > Causation Specific Sciences > Physics > Relativity Theory Specific Sciences > Physics > Symmetries/Invariances
Date:	20 July 2023
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/22330

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