Time's Arrows Today
Subtitle: Recent Physical and Philosophical Work on the Direction of Time
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: September 29, 1995
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 344
ISBN-13: 9780521461115
Subjects: Theoretical methods; Topics in philosophy; Philosophy Of Science; Philosophy; History & Surveys - Modern; Mathematical Physics; Metaphysics; Science / Gravity
First sentence: The relation of any fundamental theory to time is crucial as was evident from the earliest days of physics.
Description: While it seems manifest in our experience that time flows - from the past to the present moment and into the future, there are a number of philosophical and physical objections to this commonsense view of dynamic time. In the quest to make sense of this conundrum philosophers and physicists confront fascinating and irresistible questions such as: Can effects precede causes? Can one travel in time?

Can the expansion of the universe or the process of measurement in quantum mechanics provide a direction of time?

In this book eleven eminent scholars, standing at the boundary between physics and philosophy, attempt to answer these questions in an entertaining yet rigorous way. For example, William Unruh's chapter is one of the first non-technical essays by this important cosmologist and Huw Price discusses critically the exciting cosmological views of Hawking and Penrose.

Philip Stamp and Anthony Leggett discuss macroscopic quantum phenomena, a subject which has not been discussed much outside the specialist literature. John Earman's paper on time travel is likely to become one of the landmarks in the literature. The book will be enjoyed by anyone of a speculative turn of mind fascinated by the puzzles of time.