Cognitive Scaffold

Preparing your thinking workspace

arrow_back_ios_new
MENTAL MODEL · M13164

Backward Causation

Backward Causation
TechnicalHigh supportScientific Methodology
Included
account_tree

Updated 2026-09-10

Loading revision record…

INTRODUCTION

English translation pending.

CORE DEFINITION

Backward causation, also called retrocausality, is the case where an effect precedes its cause in time. Causation in our world appears always to run forward, and this assumption is so deep that the reverse is hard to imagine. The entry examines whether that intuition can be shaken, and the paradoxes and free will problems that arise, including the bilking argument and the bootstrap paradox.

SCAFFOLDING EFFECT

psychology

Reduce cognitive load

- Test causal intuition: use cases where the effect precedes the cause to probe the direction assumption. - Apply bilking: ask whether the cause could be blocked after the effect has already been observed. - Clarify manipulation: examine what temporal structure the cause-as-handle picture silently presupposes.

anchor

Anchor fast decisions

The main obstacle to backward causation is not logical contradiction but conflict with the two cues by which we detect causal direction: temporal order, and whether manipulating the cause changes the effect. If the effect comes first, one could observe it and then block its cause, which is the bilking argument. Accommodating retrocausality requires showing why such bilking is impossible or harmless.

MINIMUM ACTION

In progress 0/1

Practice this model in one real situation:

Check to track your progress (stored locally)
Learning progress0%
account_treeGenealogyexpand_more
menu_bookReferencesexpand_more

Source support: Explicit

  • link
    plato.stanford.eduhttps://plato.stanford.edu/entries/causation-backwards/ZH · Explicit
    verified

RELATED MODELS

Related model

Streetlight Effect

The streetlight effect, or the drunkard's search principle, is a type of observational bias that occurs when people only search for something where it is easiest to look. Both names refer to a well-known joke: A policeman sees a drunk man searching for something under a streetlight and asks what th…

arrow_forwardRelated model

Cargo Cult Science

"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of a Curious Character is an edited collection of reminiscences by the Nobel Prize–winning physicist Richard Feynman. The book, published in 1985, covers a variety of instances in Feynman's life. The anecdotes in the book are based on recorded audio ...

arrow_forwardRelated model

NOMA - Non-Overlapping Magisteria

Stephen Jay Gould's proposal that science and religion occupy two separate, non-overlapping domains of authority, one answering questions of fact and the other questions of meaning and value.

arrow_forward