Physical lawfulness and causality

pp. 137-154

in: Philipp Frank, Robert S. Cohen, The law of causality and its limits, Berlin, Springer, 1998

Abstract

A main feature of the popular notion of causality is that cause and effect must resemble each other somehow, or at least be in proportion. The stronger the cause, the stronger the effect. For a long time however a suitable measure for all possible causes and effects was lacking, and therefore any possibility of determining when a portion of cause equalled the corresponding portion of effect. However we believed we have a certain feeling for it.