This paper takes up Huw Price׳s challenge to develop a retrocausal toy model of the Bell-EPR experiment. I develop three such models which show that a consistent, local, hidden-variables interpretation of the EPR experiment is indeed possible, and which give a feel for the kind of retrocausation involved. The first of the models also makes clear a problematic feature of retrocausation: it seems that we cannot interpret the hidden elements of reality in a retrocausal model as possessing determinate dispositions to affect the outcome of experiments. This is a feature which Price has embraced, but Gordon Belot has argued that this feature renders retrocausal interpretations "unsuitable for formal development", and the lack of such determinate dispositions threatens to undermine the motivation for hidden-variables interpretations in the first place. But Price and Belot are both too quick in their assessment. I show that determinate dispositions are indeed consistent with retrocausation. What is more, I show that the ontological economy allowed by retrocausation holds out the promise of a classical understanding of spin and polarization.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Keywords:	Retrocausality; EPR; Toy model; Quantum mechanics; Dispositions
Research Division:	Philosophy and Religious Studies
Research Group:	History and philosophy of specific fields
Research Field:	History and philosophy of science
Objective Division:	Expanding Knowledge
Objective Group:	Expanding knowledge
Objective Field:	Expanding knowledge in philosophy and religious studies
UTAS Author:	Corry, RL (Dr Richard Corry)
ID Code:	99517
Year Published:	2015
Web of Science® Times Cited:	6
Deposited By:	School of Humanities
Deposited On:	2015-03-26
Last Modified:	2018-03-13
Downloads:	0