Causality and the Three Levels of Language in Quantum Mechanics
Abstract
The observational level of language in quantum mechanics records the results of manipulating instruments. The regularity-between-states view of causality has several advantages over theories that begin with distinct events and seek to elaborate conditions under which one event is a cause of a second event. The regularity-between-states view provides a unified treatment of deterministic and indeterministic generalizations. In addition, by linking causal relatedness to functional relations between states of isolated systems, one can sidestep questions about nonlocality, action-at-a-distance, and backward causation. What counts for causal relatedness is the success of inferences made about changes in the states of physical systems. α-Particles of given energy and direction, incident upon a sheet of aluminum, are absorbed at varying distances inside the sheet. The law governing this absorption is a statistical law, but since the state description is accomplished without reference to probabilities, this law also is a deterministic law.
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