Robert Griffiths
Department of Physics, CMU
26 October 2000

"Probabilistic Counterfactuals"

Abstract: Various quantum paradoxes involve counterfactual questions of the following type: A decision to measure property P of a quantum system was based upon tossing a coin which turned up heads. What WOULD have occurred IF the outcome had been tails, resulting in the measurement of a different property Q? A method will be presented for analyzing questions of this sort. The basic idea behind it can (and will) be explained without reference to quantum theory, and the procedure might be useful for analyzing other kinds of counterfactual questions.
 

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