The Principle of the 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.

Table of Contents:
Preface; 1. Introduction and overview; 2. The common cause principle; 3. Common cause extendability of probability spaces; 4. Causally closed probability theories; 5. Common common causes; 6. Common cause extendability of non-classical probability spaces; 7. Reichenbachian common cause systems; 8. Causal closedness of quantum field theory; 9. Reichenbach's common cause principle and EPR correlations; 10. Where do we stand?; Appendix; Index.

About the Author :
Gábor Hofer-Szabó is a Bolyai Research Fellow in the Department of Logic at the Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest. His main fields of research are foundations of quantum mechanics, interpretations of probability and probabilistic causality. Miklós Rédei is a Reader in the Department of Philosophy, Logic and Methodology of Science at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His research interests are philosophy and foundations of physics. László E. Szabó is Professor in the Department of Logic, Institute of Philosophy at Eötvös University, Budapest. His research focuses on the philosophy of space and time, causality, the EPR–Bell problem, interpretation of probability and a physicalist account of mathematics.

Review :
'I would encourage many readers to approach this book. It is clear and, as far as possible, concise. It doesn't neglect any important aspect of the state-of-the-art concerning the Principle. I would recommend this reading to any physicist and particularly to those interested in complex systems and statistical physics. … I think the book might also interest scholars in the field of philosophy of science. It should also be considered for acquisition by academic libraries, since it deals with a relatively new subject which could be applied in different fields. This book might also constitute a good discussion basis for interesting seminars for future PhDs and would represent a good text book for post-graduate students.' Marco Casazza, Contemporary Physics