Publisher Description

Chance and Temporal Asymmetry presents a collection of cutting-edge research papers in the metaphysics of science, tackling the perplexing philosophical problems raised by recent progress in the physics and metaphysics of chance and time. How do the probabilities found in fundamental physics and the probabilities of the special sciences relate to one another? Can a constraint on the initial conditions of the universe underwrite the second law ofthermodynamics? How does contemporary quantum theory reframe debates over the nature of chance? What grounds do we have for believing in a fundamental direction to time? And how do all these questions connectup?The aim of the volume is both to survey and summarize recent debates about chance and temporal asymmetry and to push them forward. Familiar approaches are subjected to searching new critiques, and bold new proposals are made concerning (inter alia) the semantics of chance-attributions, the justification of the Principal Principle connecting chance and degree of belief, and the source of the temporal asymmetry of human experience. The contributors includeworld-leading figures in the field, all presenting new work rather than rehashing old ideas, as well as a number of promising junior scholars. A wide-ranging introduction connects the different chapters together, andprovides essential background to the debates they take up. Technicality is kept to a minimum and philosophical and conceptual foundations take centre stage.Chance and Temporal Asymmetry sets the agenda for future work on time and chance, which are central to the emerging sub-field of metaphysics of science. It will be indispensable to graduate students and to specialists in metaphysics and philosophy of science.

Author Biography

Alastair Wilson is a Birmingham Fellow at the University of Birmingham and an Adjunct Research Fellow at Monash University. He received his D.Phil from Oxford University in 2011, for a thesis on the metaphysical challenges and opportunities arising from Everettian (many-worlds) quantum mechanics. His current research focuses on modality, chance and fundamentality, and on epistemological and metaphysical questions in cosmology

Table of Contents

Alastair Wilson: Introduction: Chance and Temporal Asymmetry1: Toby Handfield & Alastair Wilson: Chance and Context2: Christopher J. G. Meacham: Autonomous Chances and the Conflicts Problem3: Carl Hoefer: Consistency and Admissibility: Reply to Meacham4: Wolfgang Schwarz: Proving the Principal Principle5: Alan Hájek: A Chancy 'Magic Trick'6: Aidan Lyon: From Kolmogorov, to Popper, to Rényi: There?s No Escaping Humphreys? Paradox (When Generalized)7: Antony Eagle: Is the Past a Matter of Chance?8: David Z. Albert: The Sharpness of the Distinction Between the Past and the Future9: L. A. Paul: Experience and the Arrow10: David Wallace: Probability in Physics: Stochastic, Statistical, Quantum11: Mathias Frisch: Why Physics Can't Explain Everything12: Brad Weslake: Statistical-Mechanical Imperialism13: Jessica Wilson: Hume's Dictum and Natural Modality: Counterfactuals14: Alexander Bird: Time, Chance, and the Necessity of EverythingIndex

Review

It's a very cohesive volume. Importantly not only do the papers represent high quality research, but most are usually clear and fantastic reads. * Craig Callender, Australasian Journal of philosophy. *
the volume as a whole serves as a valuable introduction to the ways in which work on chance can and should inform work on temporal asymmetry, and vice-versa...All of these papers are of the highest quality, and all of them take up innovative and interesting philosophical questions. Taken together they amount to a significant advance in our understanding of chance, of temporal asymmetry, and of the connections between the two topics. * Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews Online *

Promotional

This volume presents twelve original essays on the metaphysics of science, with particular focus on the physics of chance and time.

Long Description

Chance and Temporal Asymmetry presents a collection of cutting-edge research papers in the metaphysics of science, tackling the perplexing philosophical problems raised by recent progress in the physics and metaphysics of chance and time. How do the probabilities found in fundamental physics and the probabilities of the special sciences relate to one another? Can a constraint on the initial conditions of the universe underwrite the second law of
thermodynamics? How does contemporary quantum theory reframe debates over the nature of chance? What grounds do we have for believing in a fundamental direction to time? And how do all these questions connect
up?The aim of the volume is both to survey and summarize recent debates about chance and temporal asymmetry and to push them forward. Familiar approaches are subjected to searching new critiques, and bold new proposals are made concerning (inter alia) the semantics of chance-attributions, the justification of the Principal Principle connecting chance and degree of belief, and the source of the temporal asymmetry of human experience. The contributors include
world-leading figures in the field, all presenting new work rather than rehashing old ideas, as well as a number of promising junior scholars. A wide-ranging introduction connects the different chapters together, and
provides essential background to the debates they take up. Technicality is kept to a minimum and philosophical and conceptual foundations take centre stage.Chance and Temporal Asymmetry sets the agenda for future work on time and chance, which are central to the emerging sub-field of metaphysics of science. It will be indispensable to graduate students and to specialists in metaphysics and philosophy of science.

Review Quote

"[T]he volume as a whole serves as a valuable introduction to the ways in which work on chance can and should inform work on temporal asymmetry, and vice-versa...All of these papers are of the highest quality, and all of them take up innovative and interesting philosophical questions. Taken together they amount to a significant advance in our understanding of chance, of temporal asymmetry, and of the connections between the two topics." --Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews Online "It's a very cohesive volume. Importantly not only do the papers represent high quality research, but most are usually clear and fantastic reads." --Australasian Journal of Philosophy

Feature

Excellent line-up of contributors
Brand new work on a hot topic
Includes an introduction which illuminates the connections between the essays, and highlights key themes

Details