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AGPhil: Arbeitsgruppe Philosophie der Physik

AGPhil 2: Philosophie der Physik II

AGPhil 2.1: Vortrag

Donnerstag, 16. März 2017, 08:30–09:00, GW2 B2900

Actual Causation and the Discovery of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) — •Enno Fischer — Institut für Philosophie, Leibniz Universität Hannover

In the 1960s radio astronomic measurements yielded intensity values that exceeded the expectations constantly by 3.5 ^∘K (Penzias and Wilson 1965). The excess temperature was eventually attributed to the CMB which is the signature of a very early period of the universe. The case of the discovery of the CMB suggests some important conclusions about causal modelling in experimental physics. It is a paradigm case for situations where physicists are confronted with some unexpected measurement result that gives rise to the question for causes. When the radio astronomers built causal models for the measured intensity value they had to put forward a range of hypotheses of actual causation. This indicates that such hypotheses are essential in building causal models. I will argue that this reverses the relation between causal models and statements of actual causation as it is commonly understood: in situations with unknown causes, causal models are not the basis of judgements of actual causation, but causal models are generated through the evaluation of hypotheses of actual causation.

Reference: Penzias, Arnold and Robert Wilson: A measurement of excess antenna temperature at 4080 Mc/s. Astrophysical Journal, 142:419-421, 1965.