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Chance and Temporal Asymmetry
Contributor(s): Wilson, Alastair (Editor)
ISBN: 019967342X     ISBN-13: 9780199673421
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
OUR PRICE:   $104.50  
Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats
Published: November 2014
Qty:
Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- Philosophy | Metaphysics
- Philosophy | Free Will & Determinism
Dewey: 123.3
LCCN: 2014940484
Physical Information: 0.91" H x 6.58" W x 9.46" (1.38 lbs) 306 pages
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
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 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.