Affiliation:
1. Karlsruher Institut für Technologie, Institut für Technikfolgenabschätzung und Systemanalyse , Karlstraße 11 , Karlsruhe Germany
Abstract
AbstractHow can a present or future event causally influence one in the past? Even though the case of such a relationship is often quickly dismissed as impossible, this paper suggests that this reaction is hasty and omits interesting as well as substantive arguments and considerations. In an introductory synopsis of the metaphysics of causality, we first present and discuss arguments for and against the possibility of backwards causation. On the other hand, we suggest that a probabilistic notion of causality according to Suppes need not exclude that causes occur temporally after their effects.
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