Physics and Chance: Philosophical Issues in the Foundations of Statistical Mechanics

Sklar, Lawrence

ISBN 10: 0521558816 / ISBN 13: 9780521558815

Published by Cambridge University Press, 1995

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: Physics and Chance: Philosophical Issues in the Foundations of Statistical Mechanics
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication Date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521558816
• ISBN 13: 9780521558815
• Binding: paperback
• Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

Statistical mechanics is one of the crucial fundamental theories of physics, and in his new book Lawrence Sklar, one of the pre-eminent philosophers of physics, offers a comprehensive, non-technical introduction to that theory and to attempts to understand its foundational elements. Among the topics treated in detail are: probability and statistical explanation, the basic issues in both equilibrium and non-equilibrium statistical mechanics, the role of cosmology, the reduction of thermodynamics to statistical mechanics, and the alleged foundation of the very notion of time asymmetry in the entropic asymmetry of systems in time. The book emphasises the interaction of scientific and philosophical modes of reasoning, and in this way will interest all philosophers of science as well as those in physics and chemistry concerned with philosophical questions. The book could also be read by an informed general reader interested in the foundations of modern science.

Book Description

Statistical mechanics is one of the crucial fundamental theories of physics, and in his new book Lawrence Sklar, one of the pre-eminent philosophers of physics, offers a comprehensive, non-technical introduction to that theory and to attempts to understand its foundational elements.