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Funded
Research Projects Since 2001
Causality,
Determinism and Probability in Quantum Mechanics and Relativity Theory
Spanish
Ministry of Science and Technology project BFF2002-01552.
Dates: November 2002 - December 2005.
Principal Investigator: Mauricio Suárez (Universidad Complutense
de Madrid)
Co-Investigators: Carl Hoefer (Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona / ICREA),
Henrik Zinkernagel (Universidad de Granada)
Summary
of Proposal: The project will develop a systematic analysis of
three essential concepts in contemporary philosophy of science: probability,
determinism and causality, in the specific framework of two of the main
present day physical theories, quantum mechanics and relativity theory.
The project has four main aims: 1) to defend ontological pluralism about
causality, both as regards the existence of different conceptions of
causality, and as regards their applicability to different physical
theories; 2) to argue for a neat separation between the concepts of
determinism and causality, and in particular to defend the claim that
determinism does not imply causality, nor does causality imply determinism;
this allows us on the one hand (2a) to develop causal models for the
quantum correlations and the process of quantum measurement and, on
the other (2b), to argue against any causal reading of the deterministic
processes found in models of the General Theory of Relativity; 4) to
develop and defend a theory of causal notions such as propensity and
objective chance that is metaphysically neutral, and thus permits, without
requiring, a realist epistemology about such notions.
The
network runs a seminar series and a reading group:
Seminar Series
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