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Author: Barry Loewer
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 067428772X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 401
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Book Description
Philosophers debate the ideas and implications of one of the most important contemporary works in the philosophy of science, David Albert’s Time and Chance. In the twenty-odd years since its publication, David Albert’s Time and Chance has been recognized as one of the most significant contemporary contributions to the philosophy of science. Here, philosophers and physicists explore the implications of Albert’s arguments and debate his solutions to some of the most intractable problems in theoretical physics. Albert has attempted to make sense of the tension between our best scientific pictures of the fundamental physical structure of the world and our everyday empirical experience of that world. In particular, he is concerned with problems arising from causality and the direction of time: defying common sense, almost all our basic scientific ideas suggest that whatever can happen can just as naturally happen in reverse. Focusing on Newtonian mechanics, Albert provides a systematic account of the temporal irreversibility of the Second Law of Thermodynamics, of the asymmetries in our epistemic access to the past and the future, and of our conviction that by acting now we can affect the future but not the past. He also generalizes the Newtonian picture to the quantum-mechanical case and suggests a deep potential connection between the problem of the direction of time and the quantum-mechanical measurement problem. The essays included in The Probability Map of the Universe develop, explore, and critique this account, while Albert himself replies. The result is an insightful discussion of the foundations of statistical mechanics and its relation to cosmology, the direction of time, and the metaphysical nature of laws and objective probability.
Author: Barry Loewer
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 067428772X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 401
Get Book Here
Book Description
Philosophers debate the ideas and implications of one of the most important contemporary works in the philosophy of science, David Albert’s Time and Chance. In the twenty-odd years since its publication, David Albert’s Time and Chance has been recognized as one of the most significant contemporary contributions to the philosophy of science. Here, philosophers and physicists explore the implications of Albert’s arguments and debate his solutions to some of the most intractable problems in theoretical physics. Albert has attempted to make sense of the tension between our best scientific pictures of the fundamental physical structure of the world and our everyday empirical experience of that world. In particular, he is concerned with problems arising from causality and the direction of time: defying common sense, almost all our basic scientific ideas suggest that whatever can happen can just as naturally happen in reverse. Focusing on Newtonian mechanics, Albert provides a systematic account of the temporal irreversibility of the Second Law of Thermodynamics, of the asymmetries in our epistemic access to the past and the future, and of our conviction that by acting now we can affect the future but not the past. He also generalizes the Newtonian picture to the quantum-mechanical case and suggests a deep potential connection between the problem of the direction of time and the quantum-mechanical measurement problem. The essays included in The Probability Map of the Universe develop, explore, and critique this account, while Albert himself replies. The result is an insightful discussion of the foundations of statistical mechanics and its relation to cosmology, the direction of time, and the metaphysical nature of laws and objective probability.
Author: J. Richard Gott
Publisher: National Geographic Books
ISBN: 1426206518
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 244
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Book Description
Using space photographs and scaled maps, demonstrates the actual size of objects in the cosmos, from Buzz Aldrin's historic footprint on the Moon to the entire visible universe, with a gatefold of the Gott-Juric Map of the Universe.
Author: David Z Albert
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674020138
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 188
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Book Description
This book is an attempt to get to the bottom of an acute and perennial tension between our best scientific pictures of the fundamental physical structure of the world and our everyday empirical experience of it. The trouble is about the direction of time. The situation (very briefly) is that it is a consequence of almost every one of those fundamental scientific pictures--and that it is at the same time radically at odds with our common sense--that whatever can happen can just as naturally happen backwards. Albert provides an unprecedentedly clear, lively, and systematic new account--in the context of a Newtonian-Mechanical picture of the world--of the ultimate origins of the statistical regularities we see around us, of the temporal irreversibility of the Second Law of Thermodynamics, of the asymmetries in our epistemic access to the past and the future, and of our conviction that by acting now we can affect the future but not the past. Then, in the final section of the book, he generalizes the Newtonian picture to the quantum-mechanical case and (most interestingly) suggests a very deep potential connection between the problem of the direction of time and the quantum-mechanical measurement problem. The book aims to be both an original contribution to the present scientific and philosophical understanding of these matters at the most advanced level, and something in the nature of an elementary textbook on the subject accessible to interested high-school students.
Author: Barry Dainton
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1474236480
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 697
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Book Description
Featuring chapters on the latest developments in fifteen core subjects in analytic philosophy, The Bloomsbury Companion to Analytic Philosophy is an essential guide for all those working in the field today. Introducing its history and looking ahead to new research directions, this companion brings together a team of internationally renowned philosophers to explore the major concepts, thinkers and areas of inquiry in the analytic tradition With an extensive glossary, an annotated bibliography, a timeline of major events and publications, and a guide to further resources, this comprehensive companion is ideal for use on courses. Broken down into three parts, it covers: The history of analytic philosophy, from Frege, Moore and Russell to Wittgenstein, the Vienna Circle and beyond the more recent work of four influential American philosophers: Quine, Davidson, Putnam and Kripke Current analytic philosophy in action in subjects such as philosophy of mind and language, moral and political philosophy, metaphysics, epistemology and the philosophy of science, mathematics, perception, free will and personal identity Recent trends and developments such as the rise of specialisation and science, self-consciousness and analytic metaphysics Broaching the controversial question of what analytical philosophy is, explaining how it differs from Continental Philosophy and exploring the extent to which it in a state of crisis, The Bloomsbury Companion to Analytic Philosophy presents an authoritative introduction to the origins and future of Anglo-America's dominant philosophical tradition. Now available in paperback, this edition includes updated references and a chapter on Ethics and the problem of overdemandingnes.
Author: Barry Loewer
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198907710
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 159
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Book Description
Barry Loewer presents a novel account of the metaphysics of law of nature, chances, fundamental ontology, and the space-time arena they occupy. He calls this the Package Deal Account. This aims to answer Stephen Hawking's question "What is it that breathes fire into the equations and makes a universe for them to describe?" Loewer's account stands on the shoulders of David Lewis's Humean Best Systems Account of laws and chances, but rejects Lewis' Humean ontology of natural properties, and instead lets the criteria that physicists employ for evaluating candidate fundamental theories of everything, together with reality, determine the universe's fundamental ontology. The Package Deal Account thus advances the project of naturalizing metaphysics. Loewer discusses the history of the concept of laws of nature, current philosophical accounts of the metaphysics of laws, and arguments for and against each of these. He then shows how the Package Deal Account overcomes objections to each, and how, unlike Lewis's Humean account and its non-Humean rivals, it is able to accommodate recent developments in physics, including proposals for theories of quantum gravity that reject the fundamentality of space-time. Loewer provides in addition an account of the laws and chances that occur in non-fundamental special sciences and how they are related to those of fundamental physics.
Author: Nancy Kress
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9780765345141
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 372
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Book Description
Nancy Kress cemented her reputation in SF with the publication of her multiple-award–winning novella, “Beggars in Spain,” which became the basis for her extremely successful Beggars Trilogy (comprising Beggars in Spain, Beggars and Choosers, and Beggars Ride). And now she brings us Probability Space, the conclusion of the trilogy that began with Probability Moon and then Probability Sun, which is centered on the same world as Kress’s Nebula Award-winning novelette, “Flowers of Aulit Prison.” The Probability Trilogy has already been widely recognized as the next great work by this important SF writer. In Probability Space, humanity’s war with the alien Fallers continues, and it is a war we are losing. Our implacable foes ignore all attempts at communication, and they take no prisoners. Our only hope lies with an unlikely coalition: Major Lyle Kaufman, retired warrior; Marbet Grant, the Sensitive who’s involved with Kaufman; Amanda, a very confused fourteen-year-old girl; and Magdalena, one of the biggest power brokers in all of human space. As the action moves from Earth to Mars to the farthest reaches of known space, with civil unrest back home and alien war in deep space, four humans--armed with little more than an unproven theory--try to enter the Fallers’ home star system. It’s a desperate gamble, and the fate of the entire universe may hang in the balance.
Author: Eddy Keming Chen
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1009027816
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 165
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Book Description
Despite its apparent complexity, our world seems to be governed by simple laws of physics. This volume provides a philosophical introduction to such laws. I explain how they are connected to some of the central issues in philosophy, such as ontology, possibility, explanation, induction, counterfactuals, time, determinism, and fundamentality. I suggest that laws are fundamental facts that govern the world by constraining its physical possibilities. I examine three hallmarks of laws-simplicity, exactness, and objectivity-and discuss whether and how they may be associated with laws of physics.
Author: David Z Albert
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674291263
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 145
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Book Description
Renowned philosopher of science David Z Albert offers an innovative approach to understanding the fundamental physical underpinnings of quantum mechanics. Albert shows how we can discern all the baffling features of quantum theory in a simple picture of the pushings and pullings of concrete and high-dimensional, fundamental physical “stuff.”
Author: Yemima Ben-Menahem
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030967751
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 390
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Book Description
This book subjects the traditional concept of law of nature to critical examination. There are two kinds of reasons that invite this reexamination, one deriving from philosophical concerns over the traditional concept, the other motivated by theoretical and practical changes in science. One of the philosophical worries is that the idiom of law of nature, especially when combined with the notion of laws 'governing' individual events and processes, is no longer as intelligible as it used to be in the theistic context in which the formulation of laws became central to science. The traditional concept is also challenged in various ways by contemporary scientific theories such as quantum mechanics, chaos theory and the general theory of relativity. It is no longer clear that there are any universal laws, laws do not always guarantee predictability, and the border between physical and mathematical considerations is constantly shifting. The most difficult challenge, perhaps, is to come up with a scientific explanation of the origin of laws. Wrestling with these intriguing problems, the papers in this volume broaden both our understanding of the natural order and our desiderata of scientific explanation.
Author: Sun Kwok
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319541722
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 269
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Book Description
If you have ever wanted to understand the basic principles of astronomy and celestial movements, you should read this book. Using pictures of the sky observed from different places on Earth, as well as drawings of ancient astronomical methods and tools, Prof. Sun Kwok tells this story in an entertaining and fascinating way. Since the beginning of human civilization, people have wondered about the structure of the cosmos and our place in the Universe. More than 2,000 years ago, our ancestors knew that the seasons were unequal, the Earth was an unattached object floating in space, and stars existed that they could not see. From celestial observations, they concluded that the Earth was round. Using simple tools and mathematics, ancient astronomers accurately determined the sizes of the Earth and Moon, the distance to the Moon, and the lengths of the months and year. With a clever device called the armillary sphere, Greek astronomers could predict the times of sunrise and sunset on any day of the year, at any place on Earth. They developed sophisticated mathematical models to forecast Mars’ motions hundreds of years into the future. Find out how ancient observers achieved these remarkable feats. With minimal use of mathematics, this book retraces the footsteps of our ancestors, explains their intellectual journeys in simple terms, and explores the philosophical implications of these discoveries.
