Causality

Causality in physics

The mechanical world-view that was the foundation of 19th century physics counted the physical world as continuous, each bit of the world affecting other adjacent bits in a deterministic way.

Quantum physics, as considered along with the first and second laws of thermodynamics, brings causality into question. Instead of being deterministic, atoms and subatomic particles act only statistically predictably.

Causality in history

Historians find relations between people, cultures, events, ideas, and places. These can be related by force, influence, selection, or mere correlation. A good history may question an assumed cause or correlation, or find one where it was assumed there wasn't one; it may also measure the relative strengths of different correlations. For example, Peter Galison, in Einstein's Clocks, Poincaré's Maps adds weight to the relation between Swiss time-keeping and the synchronization at the heart of special relativity.

References

STS 3301: Making Modern Science: The Physical Sciences