Statistical Mechanics and Scientific Explanation: Determinism, Indeterminism and Laws of Nature PDF
Preview Statistical Mechanics and Scientific Explanation: Determinism, Indeterminism and Laws of Nature
Statistical Mechanics and Scientific Explanation Determinism, Indeterminism and Laws of Nature 11591_9789811211713_tp.indd 1 19/9/19 10:08 AM b2530 International Strategic Relations and China’s National Security: World at the Crossroads TTTThhhhiiiissss ppppaaaaggggeeee iiiinnnntttteeeennnnttttiiiioooonnnnaaaallllllllyyyy lllleeeefffftttt bbbbllllaaaannnnkkkk b2530_FM.indd 6 01-Sep-16 11:03:06 AM Statistical Mechanics and Scientific Explanation Determinism, Indeterminism and Laws of Nature Editor Valia Allori Northern Illinois University, USA World Scientific NEW JERSEY • LONDON • SINGAPORE • BEIJING • SHANGHAI • HONG KONG • TAIPEI • CHENNAI • TOKYO 11591_9789811211713_tp.indd 2 19/9/19 10:08 AM Published by World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd. 5 Toh Tuck Link, Singapore 596224 USA office: 27 Warren Street, Suite 401-402, Hackensack, NJ 07601 UK office: 57 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9HE British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. STATISTICAL MECHANICS AND SCIENTIFIC EXPLANATION Determinism, Indeterminism and Laws of Nature Copyright © 2020 by World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without written permission from the publisher. For photocopying of material in this volume, please pay a copying fee through the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. In this case permission to photocopy is not required from the publisher. ISBN 978-981-121-171-3 (hardcover) ISBN 978-981-121-172-0 (ebook for institutions) ISBN 978-981-121-173-7 (ebook for individuals) For any available supplementary material, please visit https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/11591#t=suppl Typeset by Stallion Press Email: [email protected] Printed in Singapore Cheryl - 11591 - Statistical Mechanics and Scientific Explanation.indd 1 06-03-20 9:56:05 AM March24,2020 14:50 StatisticalMechanicsandScientificExplanation 9inx6in b3714-fm pagev Contents Introduction ix Valia Allori Part I: The Different Faces of Explanation 1 Chapter 1. The Mentaculus Vision 3 Barry Loewer Chapter 2. Probabilistic Explanations and the Derivation of Macroscopic Laws 31 Jean Bricmont Chapter 3. Some Reflections on the Statistical Postulate: Typicality, Probability and Explanation between Deterministic and Indeterministic Theories 65 Valia Allori Chapter 4. Explaining Thermodynamics: What Remains to be Done? 113 Wayne C. Myrvold v March24,2020 15:53 StatisticalMechanicsandScientificExplanation 9inx6in b3714-fm pagevi vi Contents Part II: The Language of Typicality 145 Chapter 5. Reassessing Typicality Explanations in Statistical Mechanics 147 Massimiliano Badino Chapter 6. The Logic of Typicality 173 Harry Crane and Isaac Wilhelm Chapter 7. The Grammar of Typicality 231 Tim Maudlin Part III: The Past Hypothesis, the Arrows of Time, and Cosmology 253 Chapter 8. Can the Past Hypothesis Explain the Psychological Arrow of Time? 255 Meir Hemmo and Orly Shenker Chapter 9. Eternal Recurrence Worlds and the Best System Account of Laws 289 Ryan A. Olsen and Christopher J. G. Meacham Chapter 10. Arrow(s) of Time without a Past Hypothesis 343 Dustin Lazarovici and Paula Reichert Chapter 11. The Influence of Gravity on the Boltzmann Entropy of a Closed Universe 387 Michael K.-H. Kiessling March24,2020 14:50 StatisticalMechanicsandScientificExplanation 9inx6in b3714-fm pagevii Contents vii Part IV: Some Consideration from Quantum Mechanics 421 Chapter 12. Foundations of Statistical Mechanics and the Status of the Born Rule in de Broglie-Bohm Pilot-Wave Theory 423 Antony Valentini Chapter 13. Time’s Arrow in a Quantum Universe: On the Status of Statistical Mechanical Probabilities 479 Eddy Keming Chen Part V: Boltzmann and Gibbs 517 Chapter 14. Gibbs and Boltzmann Entropy in Classical and Quantum Mechanics 519 Sheldon Goldstein, Joel L. Lebowitz, Roderich Tumulka and Nino Zangh`ı Chapter 15. The Necessity of Gibbsian Statistical Mechanics 583 David Wallace Chapter 16. Taming Abundance: On the Relation between Boltzmannian and Gibbsian Statistical Mechanics 617 Charlotte Werndl and Roman Frigg Index 647 b2530 International Strategic Relations and China’s National Security: World at the Crossroads TTTThhhhiiiissss ppppaaaaggggeeee iiiinnnntttteeeennnnttttiiiioooonnnnaaaallllllllyyyy lllleeeefffftttt bbbbllllaaaannnnkkkk b2530_FM.indd 6 01-Sep-16 11:03:06 AM March24,2020 14:50 StatisticalMechanicsandScientificExplanation 9inx6in b3714-fm pageix Introduction Valia Allori Department of Philosophy, Northern Illinois University [email protected] While I am writing this chapter, I am sitting in my room at a table by a window from which I see a river. While I take a sip of my coffee, I can also see the clouds in the sky coming towards my house, which are about to ruin my weekend. Now that it is getting dark, I can also spot the Earth’s silver satellite by the tree, which is gently moving in the wind. The objects of my experience (the river, the clouds, the wind, the coffee, the Moon, and the tree) are thought of as being composed by a multitude of much smaller entities. They are called macroscopic objects because they are big with respect to the dimen- sionof theircomponents,whicharethuslabelledas microscopicenti- ties. My coffee, for instance, fits into a container which has an 8cm (cid:2)(cid:2) (cid:2)(cid:2) (3.25 ) diameter and a height of about 9.5cm (3.75 ). However, my 25 mugcontains alargenumberofmolecules,about10 ,whosesizecan be estimated to be about 3·10−8cm. All the objects that I see may change incomplicated ways; thatis,theirtemporalevolution may be governed by a very complex dynamics. Despite this, however, their behaviour is governed by general physical laws, such as the laws of thermodynamics, which govern many different physical phenomena, fromthetransformationof dyingstarsintoblack holes totheprocess of combustion in the water boiler in our houses. If one is convinced that themotion of themicroscopic entities is governed by a complete ix
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