Physics Without Metaphysics

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The Metaphysics Within Physics
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Author : Tim Maudlin
language : en
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Release Date : 2007-04-19
The Metaphysics Within Physics written by Tim Maudlin and has been published by OUP Oxford this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2007-04-19 with Philosophy categories.
What fundamental account of the world is implicit in physical theory? Physics straightforwardly postulates quarks and electrons, but what of the more intangible elements, such as laws of nature, universals, causation and the direction of time? Do they have a place in the physical structure of the world? Tim Maudlin argues that the ontology derived from physics takes a form quite different from those most commonly defended by philosophers. Physics postulates irreducible fundamental laws, eschews universals, does not require a fundamental notion of causation, and makes room for the passage of time. In a series of linked essays The Metaphysics Within Physics outlines an approach to metaphysics opposed to the Humean reductionism that motivates much analytical metaphysics.
Physics Without Metaphysics
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Author : James Carter
language : en
Publisher: Lulu.com
Release Date : 2014-06-09
Physics Without Metaphysics written by James Carter and has been published by Lulu.com this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2014-06-09 with Science categories.
This book describes the new Circlon Synchronicity philosophy that uses the mechanics of Newton's F=ma for the measurement of energy and matter within a universe of absolute mass, space, time and gravity. The discovery that the electron's mass has been decreasing since the beginning of time reveals the creation of matter in our evolutionary past. This creation story combines the Big Bang theory's measurements with the evolving electrodynamics of circlon shaped electrons, protons and photons. This story begins with red shifted Hubble galaxies and the so called Dark Energy supernovas. Next, the photons of the 2.7˚K Cosmic Blackbody Radiation are created by 2256 decaying neutrons at the end of a stable neutron cloud era. A long time prior to this, all of our electrons and protons were bifurcated from a single anti-Hydrogen atom. This book is illustrated with many circlon models, nuclear structures, charts and equations that depict circlon electrodynamics and the evolution of the universe.
Everywhere And Everywhen
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Author : Nick Huggett
language : en
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Release Date : 2010-02-03
Everywhere And Everywhen written by Nick Huggett and has been published by Oxford University Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2010-02-03 with Philosophy categories.
Why does time pass and space does not? Are there just three dimensions? What is a quantum particle? Nick Huggett shows that philosophy -- armed with a power to analyze fundamental concepts and their relationship to the human experience -- has much to say about these profound questions about the universe. In Everywhere and Everywhen, Huggett charts a journey that peers into some of the oldest questions about the world, through some of the newest, such as: What shape is space? Does it have an edge? What is the difference between past and future? What is time in relativity? Is time travel possible? Are there other universes? Huggett shows that answers to these profound questions are not just reserved for physics, and that philosophy can not only address but help advance our view of our deepest questions about the universe, space, and time, and their implications for humanity. His lively, accessible introduction to these topics is suitable for a general reader with no previous exposure to these profound and exciting questions.
Information And The Nature Of Reality
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Author : Paul Davies
language : en
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Release Date : 2010-09-23
Information And The Nature Of Reality written by Paul Davies and has been published by Cambridge University Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2010-09-23 with Science categories.
Many scientists regard mass and energy as the primary currency of nature. In recent years, however, the concept of information has gained importance. Why? In this book, eminent scientists, philosophers and theologians chart various aspects of information, from quantum information to biological and digital information, in order to understand how nature works. Beginning with an historical treatment of the topic, the book also examines physical and biological approaches to information, and its philosophical, theological and ethical implications.
Every Thing Must Go
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Author : James Ladyman
language : en
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Release Date : 2007-07-05
Every Thing Must Go written by James Ladyman and has been published by OUP Oxford this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2007-07-05 with Philosophy categories.
Every Thing Must Go argues that the only kind of metaphysics that can contribute to objective knowledge is one based specifically on contemporary science as it really is, and not on philosophers' a priori intuitions, common sense, or simplifications of science. In addition to showing how recent metaphysics has drifted away from connection with all other serious scholarly inquiry as a result of not heeding this restriction, they demonstrate how to build a metaphysics compatible with current fundamental physics ('ontic structural realism'), which, when combined with their metaphysics of the special sciences ('rainforest realism'), can be used to unify physics with the other sciences without reducing these sciences to physics itself. Taking science metaphysically seriously, Ladyman and Ross argue, means that metaphysicians must abandon the picture of the world as composed of self-subsistent individual objects, and the paradigm of causation as the collision of such objects. Every Thing Must Go also assesses the role of information theory and complex systems theory in attempts to explain the relationship between the special sciences and physics, treading a middle road between the grand synthesis of thermodynamics and information, and eliminativism about information. The consequences of the author's metaphysical theory for central issues in the philosophy of science are explored, including the implications for the realism vs. empiricism debate, the role of causation in scientific explanations, the nature of causation and laws, the status of abstract and virtual objects, and the objective reality of natural kinds.
The Nature Of Contingency
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Author : Alastair Wilson
language : en
Publisher:
Release Date : 2020
The Nature Of Contingency written by Alastair Wilson and has been published by this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2020 with Philosophy categories.
This book defends a radical new theory of contingency as a physical phenomenon. Drawing on the many-worlds approach, it argues that quantum theories are best understood as telling us about the space of genuine possibilities, rather than as telling us solely about actuality.
How Physics Makes Us Free
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Author : J. T. Ismael
language : en
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Release Date : 2016-02-03
How Physics Makes Us Free written by J. T. Ismael and has been published by Oxford University Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2016-02-03 with Philosophy categories.
In 1687 Isaac Newton ushered in a new scientific era in which laws of nature could be used to predict the movements of matter with almost perfect precision. Newton's physics also posed a profound challenge to our self-understanding, however, for the very same laws that keep airplanes in the air and rivers flowing downhill tell us that it is in principle possible to predict what each of us will do every second of our entire lives, given the early conditions of the universe. Can it really be that even while you toss and turn late at night in the throes of an important decision and it seems like the scales of fate hang in the balance, that your decision is a foregone conclusion? Can it really be that everything you have done and everything you ever will do is determined by facts that were in place long before you were born? This problem is one of the staples of philosophical discussion. It is discussed by everyone from freshman in their first philosophy class, to theoretical physicists in bars after conferences. And yet there is no topic that remains more unsettling, and less well understood. If you want to get behind the façade, past the bare statement of determinism, and really try to understand what physics is telling us in its own terms, read this book. The problem of free will raises all kinds of questions. What does it mean to make a decision, and what does it mean to say that our actions are determined? What are laws of nature? What are causes? What sorts of things are we, when viewed through the lenses of physics, and how do we fit into the natural order? Ismael provides a deeply informed account of what physics tells us about ourselves. The result is a vision that is abstract, alien, illuminating, and-Ismael argues-affirmative of most of what we all believe about our own freedom. Written in a jargon-free style, How Physics Makes Us Free provides an accessible and innovative take on a central question of human existence.
Metaphysics In Contemporary Physics
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Author : Tomasz Bigaj
language : en
Publisher: BRILL
Release Date : 2015-11-24
Metaphysics In Contemporary Physics written by Tomasz Bigaj and has been published by BRILL this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2015-11-24 with Philosophy categories.
This book is a collection of essays whose topics center around relations between analytic metaphysics and modern physical theories. The contributions to the volume cover a broad spectrum of issues, ranging from metaphysical implications of selected physical theories (quantum mechanics, quantum field theory, general relativity, string theory etc.), to specific problems in scientifically-oriented analytic metaphysics, such as the problem of emergence and reduction, the part-whole relation, and the question of objecthood, properties and individuality on the fundamental level of reality. The authors of the contributions are philosophers of science, physicists and metaphysicians of international renown, and their work represents the cutting edge in modern metaphysics of physical sciences. Contributors are: Tomasz Bigaj, Jessica Bloom, Nazim Bouatta, Jeremy Butterfield, Adam Caulton, Dennis Dieks, Mauro Dorato, Michael Esfeld, Steven French, Andreas Hüttemann, Marek Kuś, Douglas Kutach, Vincent Lam, Olimpia Lombardi, Kerry McKenzie, Thomas Møller-Nielsen, Matteo Morganti, Ioan Muntean, Dean Rickles, Antonio Vassallo, Jessica Wilson, Christian Wüthrich
Basic Structures Of Reality
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Author : Colin McGinn
language : en
Publisher: OUP USA
Release Date : 2011-12-09
Basic Structures Of Reality written by Colin McGinn and has been published by OUP USA this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2011-12-09 with Philosophy categories.
In Basic Structures of Reality, Colin McGinn deals with questions of metaphysics, epistemology, and philosophy of mind from the vantage point of physics. Combining general philosophy with physics, he covers such topics as the definition of matter, the nature of space, motion, gravity, electromagnetic fields, the character of physical knowledge, and consciousness and meaning. Throughout, McGinn maintains an historical perspective and seeks to determine how much we really know of the world described by physics. He defends a version of "structuralism": the thesis that our knowledge is partial and merely abstract, leaving a large epistemological gap at the center of physics. McGinn then connects this element of mystery to parallel mysteries in relation to the mind. Consciousness emerges as just one more mystery of physics. A theory of matter and space is developed, according to which the impenetrability of matter is explained as the deletion of volumes of space. McGinn proposes a philosophy of science that distinguishes physics from both psychology and biology, explores the ontology of energy, and considers the relevance of physics to seemingly remote fields such as the theory of meaning. In the form of a series of aphorisms, the author presents a metaphysical system that takes laws of nature as fundamental. With its broad scope and deep study of the fundamental questions at the heart of philosophy of physics, this book is not intended primarily for specialists, but for the general philosophical reader interested in how physics and philosophy intersect.
Physics And Metaphysics
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Author : Alexander Mitjashin
language : en
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Release Date : 2011-08-08
Physics And Metaphysics written by Alexander Mitjashin and has been published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2011-08-08 with Philosophy categories.
The central thought of this book is that definite predictions of classical physics can be explained by mathematics of special relativity. The probabilistic nature of quantum mechanics is determined by peculiar mathematics which can only describe the quantum phenomena – this mathematics gives statistical explanations to these phenomena and no other explanations could in principle be given to them; as well, the phenomena of classical physics which are to be described definitely (but not in principle probabilistically) can be described this way only because, in its turn, it is determined by peculiar mathematics and – as it is argued in the book – this simple mathematics can be straightforwardly inferred from the special relativity theory. It is shown that these important results correspond to the approach accepted in modern physics due, in particular, to Bell’s inequalities and their tests. However, the author concentrates on the philosophical consequences that should be inferred from these physical results. Naturally, metaphysical views which can be congenial to this kind of physical picture of the world must agree with the concept of non-homogeneity. Such metaphysics was firstly exposed by the author in his work devoted to the non-linearity of natural language: The World and Language: The Ontology for Natural Language (Lanham: University Press of America, 2006). But one does not need to be familiar with this book in order to read Physics and Metaphysics; nor is it necessary for the reader to have any mathematical skill or serious knowledge in physics. This book will be of benefit to those interested in the fields of physics, quantum mechanics and mathematics.