Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T08:19:42.328Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

On Gases in Boxes: A Reply to Davey on the Justification of the Probability Measure in Boltzmannian Statistical Mechanics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Elay Shech
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Kevin Davey claims that the justification of the second law of thermodynamics as it is conveyed by the “standard story” of statistical mechanics, roughly speaking, that low-entropy microstates tend to evolve to high-entropy microstates, is “unhelpful at best and wrong at worst.” In reply, I demonstrate that Davey’s argument for rejecting the standard story commits him to a form of skepticism that is more radical than the position he claims to be stating and that Davey places unreasonable demands on the notion of justification in the physical sciences.

Type
Discussion
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 80 , Issue 4 , October 2013 , pp. 593 - 605
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

†

I wish to thank John D. Norton, John Earman, Bryan Roberts, Balázs Gyenis, and Kevin Davey for helpful discussions as well as invaluable comments on earlier drafts of this article.

References

Davey, K. 2008. “The Justification of Probability Measures in Statistical Mechanics.” Philosophy of Science 75:28–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Earman, J. 1986. A Primer on Determinism. Dordrecht: Reidel.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Earman, J., and Redei, M.. 1996. “Why Ergodic Theory Does Not Explain the Success of Equilibrium Statistical Mechanics.” British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 47:63–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frigg, R. 2010. “Probability in Boltzmannian Statistical Mechanics.” In Time, Chance and Reduction: Philosophical Aspects of Statistical Mechanics, ed. Ernst, Gerhard and Huttemann, Andreas, 92–118. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frigg, R., and Werndl, C.. 2011. “Explaining Thermodynamic-Like Behavior in Terms of Epsilon-Ergodicity.” Philosophy of Science 78 (3): 628–52..CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldstein, S. 2001. “Boltzmann’s Approach to Statistical Mechanics.” In Chance in Physics: Foundations and Perspectives, Lecture Notes in Physics, Vol. 574, ed. J. Bricmont, D. Dürr, M. C. Galavotti, G. Ghirardi, F. Petruccione, and N. Zanghì. Berlin: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Norton, J. D., and Earman, J.. 1998. “Exorcist XIV: The Wrath of Maxwell’s Demon.” Pt. 1, “From Maxwell to Szilard.” Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 29:435–71.Google Scholar
Sklar, L. 1993. Physics and Chance: Philosophical Issues in the Foundations of Statistical Mechanics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Strevens, M. 2003. Bigger than Chaos: Understanding Complexity through Probability. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar