Overview
Demonstrates the central role that thought experiments can play in scientific reasoning and explores their deep philosophical consequences, with special emphasis on demons
Written primarily for an academic audience, but also accessible to the interested layperson
Inspires readers to question their existing assumptions about matters such as determinism and indeterminism
Also addresses the nature of the mind, free will, an the arrows of time
Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras
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Table of contents (28 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Laplace’s Demon
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Front Matter
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Maxwell’s Demon
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Front Matter
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Keywords
About this book
This book is the first all-encompassing exploration of the role of demons in philosophical and scientific thought experiments. In Part I, the author explains the importance of thought experiments in science and philosophy. Part II considers Laplace’s Demon, whose claim is that the world is completely deterministic. Part III introduces Maxwell’s Demon, who - by contrast - experiences a world that is probabilistic and indeterministic. Part IV explores Nietzsche’s thesis of the cyclic and eternal recurrence of events. In each case a number of philosophical consequences regarding determinism and indeterminism, the arrows of time, the nature of the mind and free will are said to follow from the Demons’s worldviews. The book investigates what these Demons - and others - can and cannot tell us about our world.
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Friedel Weinert is professor of history and philosophy of science at the University of Bradford in the UK. He is the author of several books about the interactions of science and philosophy – The Scientist as Philosopher (2004); Copernicus, Darwin and Freud (2009); The March of Time (2013)– as well as editor of Laws of Nature (1995) and co-editor of Compendium of Quantum Physics (2009) and Evolution 2.0 (2012).
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: The Demons of Science
Book Subtitle: What They Can and Cannot Tell Us About Our World
Authors: Friedel Weinert
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31708-3
Publisher: Springer Cham
eBook Packages: Physics and Astronomy, Physics and Astronomy (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-31707-6Published: 27 May 2016
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-319-81101-7Published: 30 May 2018
eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-31708-3Published: 19 May 2016
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: IX, 251
Number of Illustrations: 32 b/w illustrations, 8 illustrations in colour
Topics: History and Philosophical Foundations of Physics, Philosophy of Science, Popular Science in Physics, Cosmology