Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-q6k6v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-11T18:05:39.769Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Thermodynamic Irreversibility: Does the Big Bang Explain What It Purports to Explain?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Daniel Parker
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In this paper I examine Albert's (2000) claim that the low entropy state of the early universe is sufficient to explain irreversible thermodynamic phenomena. In particular, I argue that conditionalizing on the initial state of the universe does not have the explanatory power it is presumed to have. I present several arguments to the effect that Albert's ‘past hypothesis’ alone cannot justify the belief in past nonequilibrium conditions or ground the veracity of records of the past.

Type
Topics in Philosophy of Physics
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 72 , Issue 5: Proceedings of the 2004 Biennial Meeting of The Philosophy of Science Association. Part I: Contributed Papers , December 2005 , pp. 751 - 763
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 would like to thank Jeffrey Bub and Mathias Frisch for their comments on earlier versions of this paper.

References

Albert, David (2000), Time and Chance. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Boltzmann, Ludwig ([1898] 1964), Lectures on Gas Theory, Translated by Brush, Steven. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davies, Paul (1974), The Physics of Time Asymmetry. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Feynman, Richard (1967), The Character of Physical Law. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Goldstein, Sheldon (2001), “Boltzmann’s Approach to Statistical Mechanics”, in Bricmont, J., Dürr, D., Galavotti, M. C., Ghirardi, G., Petruccione, F., and Zanghì, Nino (eds.), Chance in Physics: Foundations and Perspectives, Lecture Notes in Physics 574. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.Google Scholar
Horwich, Paul (1988), Asymmetries in Time. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Price, Huw (1996), Time’s Arrow and Archimedes’ Point. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Reichenbach, Hans (1956), The Direction of Time. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sklar, Lawrence (1993), Physics and Chance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar