Description
Book SynopsisWhile experience tells us that time flows from the past to the present and into the future, a number of philosophical and physical objections exist to this commonsense view of dynamic time. In this book, researchers from both physics and philosophy attempt to answer these issues in an interesting, yet rigorous way.
Trade Review'This collection of papers is an exemplary case of the beneficial effects of the interaction of philosophers and scientists in a non-polistical setting. It is also the state of the art on the problem of time's arrow … Anyone working on the problem of the direction of time or the related issues discussed in the various chapters would be well advised to delve into it.' John Collier, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science
'I heartily recommend this collection to anyone, philosopher or scientist interested in the direction of time. Many of the papers make significant contributions to the field, and I found almost all of them quite interesting, I am confident this book will emerge as a standard text in the philosophy of time.' Craig Callender, Canadian Philosophical Reviews
Table of ContentsIntroduction; Part I. Cosmology and Time's Arrow: 1. Time, gravity, and quantum mechanics W. Unruh; 2. Cosmology, time's arrow, and that old double standard H. Price; Part II. Quantum Theory and Time's Arrow: 3. Time's arrow and the quantum measurement problem A. Leggett; 4. Time, decoherence, and 'reversible' measurements P. Stamp; 5. Time flows, non-locality, and measurement in quantum mechanics S. McCall; 6. Stochastically branching spacetime topology R. Douglas; Part III. Thermodynamics and Time's Arrow: 7. The elusive object of desire: in pursuit of the kinetic equations and the second law L. Sklar; 8. Time in experience and in theoretical description of the world L. Sklar; 9. When and why does entropy increase? M. Barrett and E. Sober; Part IV. Time Travel and Time's Arrow: 10. Closed causal chains P Horwich; 11. Recent work on time travel J. Earman.
