Asymmetry of Causation and Possibility of Backward Causation

Abstract

The asymmetry of causation and backward causation are discussed. The problems are whether asymmetry of causation is objective or subjective, and what backward causation is. First, I survey and criticize three theories about causation: Dowe’s fork theory, Menzies and Price’s agency theory and Woodward’s manipulability theory. Next, I insist that we should distinguish between causal process and causal direction, and that the former objectively exists but the latter does not. Third, I clarify what backward causation is if the causal direction does not objectively exist. I focus on the relative direction of temporal axis in causal process. Forth and finally, I would like to apply my theory to the problem of non-locality in quantum mechanics.