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The Nature of Irreversibility

A Study of Its Dynamics and Physical Origins

  • Book
  • © 1985

Overview

Authors:
  1. Henry B. Hollinger

    1. Department of Chemistry, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA

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  2. Michael John Zenzen

    1. Department of Philosophy, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA

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    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Part of the book series: The Western Ontario Series in Philosophy of Science (WONS, volume 28)

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Table of contents (11 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xi
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  2. Introduction

    • Henry B. Hollinger, Michael John Zenzen
    Pages 1-4

  3. The Paradoxes

    • Henry B. Hollinger, Michael John Zenzen
    Pages 5-29

  4. The Applications

    • Henry B. Hollinger, Michael John Zenzen
    Pages 30-40

  5. Return to the Paradoxes

    • Henry B. Hollinger, Michael John Zenzen
    Pages 41-56

  6. Various Kinds of Irreversibility

    • Henry B. Hollinger, Michael John Zenzen
    Pages 57-86

  7. Proposed Origins of Irreversibility

    • Henry B. Hollinger, Michael John Zenzen
    Pages 87-97

  8. The Origin of Exclusion Irreversibility

    • Henry B. Hollinger, Michael John Zenzen
    Pages 98-112

  9. Irreversibility in Fluid Dynamics

    • Henry B. Hollinger, Michael John Zenzen
    Pages 113-158

  10. Irreversibility in Statistical Mechanics

    • Henry B. Hollinger, Michael John Zenzen
    Pages 159-256

  11. Irreversibility in Quantum Statistical Mechanics

    • Henry B. Hollinger, Michael John Zenzen
    Pages 257-288

  12. On Alternative Approaches

    • Henry B. Hollinger, Michael John Zenzen
    Pages 289-303

  13. Back Matter

    Pages 304-340
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Keywords

About this book

A dominant feature of our ordinary experience of the world is a sense of irreversible change: things lose form, people grow old, energy dissipates. On the other hand, a major conceptual scheme we use to describe the natural world, molecular dynamics, has reversibility at its core. The need to harmonize conceptual schemes and experience leads to several questions, one of which is the focus of this book. How does irreversibility at the macroscopic level emerge from the reversibility that prevails at the molecular level? Attempts to explain the emergence have emphasized probability, and assigned different probabilities to the forward and reversed directions of processes so that one direction is far more probable than the other. The conclu­ sion is promising, but the reasons for it have been obscure. In many cases the aim has been to find an explana­ tion in the nature of probability itself. Reactions to that have been divided: some think the aim is justified while others think it is absurd.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Department of Chemistry, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA

    Henry B. Hollinger

  • Department of Philosophy, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA

    Michael John Zenzen

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