Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge. Edited by I. Lakatos and A. Musgrave. Pp. viii, 282. £3·50, paperback £1. 1970. (Cambridge University Press.)

Probability and Measure

Achieving understanding of nature is one of the aims of science. In this paper we offer an analysis of the nature of scientific understanding that accords with actual scientific practice and accommodates the historical diversity of conceptions of understanding. Its core idea is a general criterion for the intelligibility of scientific theories that is essentially contextual: which theories conform to this criterion depends on contextual factors, and can change in the course of time. Our analysis provides a general account of how understanding is provided by scientific explanations of diverse types. In this way, it reconciles conflicting views of explanatory understanding, such as the causal-mechanical and the unificationist conceptions.

A Contextual Approach to Scientific Understanding

THIS is a thoroughly good book which deserves to run through many editions. It is not (as its title might suggest) a book on mathematical logic or philosophy: it deals not with the nature of mathematics but with its content. Its purpose is to show, not by general disquisitions but by concrete examples, drawn from almost every branch of pure mathematics, how mathematicians think and what they do. What is Mathematics? An Elementary Approach to Ideas and Methods. By Richard Courant and Herbert Robbins. Pp. xix + 521. (London, New York and Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1941.) 25s. net.

What is Mathematics

Key Terms in Logic offers the ideal introduction to this core area in the study of philosophy, providing detailed summaries of the important concepts in the study of logic and the application of logic to the rest of philosophy. A brief introduction provides context and background, while the following chapters offer detailed definitions of key terms and concepts, introductions to the work of key thinkers and lists of key texts. Designed specifically to meet the needs of students and assuming no prior knowledge of the subject, this is the ideal reference tool for those coming to Logic for the first time.

Interpretations of probability

It is shown that, given any finite set of pairs of random events in a Boolean algebra which are correlated with respect to a fixed probability measure on the algebra, the algebra can be ext

On Reichenbach's Common Cause Principle and Reichenbach's Notion of Common Cause

It is shown that, given any finite set of pairs of random events in a Boolean algebra which are correlated with respect to a fixed probability measure on the algebra, the algebra can be extended in such a way that the extension contains events that can be regarded as common causes of the correlations in the sense of Reichenbach's definition of common cause. It is shown, further, that, given any quantum probability space and any set of commuting events in it which are correlated with respect to a fixed quantum state, the quantum probability space can be extended in such a way that the extension contains common causes of all the selected correlations, where common cause is again taken in the sense of Reichenbach's definition. It is argued that these results very strongly restrict the possible ways of disproving Reichenbach's Common Cause Principle.

https://arxiv.org/pdf/quant-ph/9805066.pdf

On Reichenbach's common cause principle and Reichenbach's notion of common cause

The common cause principle says that every correlation is either due to a direct causal effect linking the correlated entities or is brought about by a third factor, a so-called common cause. The principle is of central importance in the philosophy of science, especially in causal explanation, causal modeling and in the foundations of quantum physics. Written for philosophers of science, physicists and statisticians, this book contributes to the debate over the validity of the common cause principle, by proving results that bring to the surface the nature of explanation by common causes. It provides a technical and mathematically rigorous examination of the notion of common cause, providing an analysis not only in terms of classical probability measure spaces, which is typical in the available literature, but in quantum probability theory as well. The authors provide numerous open problems to further the debate and encourage future research in this field.

/pdf/the-principle-of-the-common-cause-3qksj97ss9.pdf

The Principle of the Common Cause

A local hidden variable theory for the GHZ experiment

Greenberger. Horne. Shimony, and Zeilinger gave a new version of the Bell theorem without using inequalities (probabilities). Mermin summarized it concisely; but Bohm and Hiley criticized Mermin's proof from contextualists' point of view. Using the branching space-time language, in this paper a proof will be given that is free of these difficulties. At the same time we will also clarify the limits of the validity of the theorem when it is taken as a proof that quantum mechanics is not compatible with a deterministic world nor with a world that permits correlated space-related events without a common cause.

László E. Szabó

Papers

On Reichenbach's Common Cause Principle and Reichenbach's Notion of Common Cause

On Reichenbach's common cause principle and Reichenbach's notion of common cause

The Principle of the Common Cause

A local hidden variable theory for the GHZ experiment

Branching space-time analysis of the GHZ theorem