Temporally oriented laws

Elliott Sober

pp. 171-189

in: Synthese 94 (2), 1993.

Abstract

A system whose expected state changes with time cannot have both a forward-directed translationally invariant probabilistic law and a backward-directed translationally invariant law. When faced with this choice, science seems to favor the former. An asymmetry between cause and effect may help to explain why temporally oriented laws are usually forward-directed.