Law and Prediction in the Light of Chaos Research (Lecture Notes in Physics)

Like relativity and quantum theory chaos research is another prominent concept of 20th century physics that has triggered deep and far-reaching discussions in the philosophy of science. In this volume outstanding scientists discuss the fundamental problems of the concepts of law and of prediction. They present their views in their contributions to this volume, but they also are exposed to criticism in transcriptions of recordings made during discussions and in comments on their views also published in this book. Although all authors assume familiarity with some background in physics they also address the philosophers of science and even a general audience interested in modern science's contribution to a deeper understanding of reality. Time, chaos and the laws of nature....Pages 3-9 Natural laws and human prediction....Pages 10-33 Comment on Boris Chirikov's paper “Natural laws and human prediction”....Pages 34-35 Natural laws and the physics of complex systems comments on the report by B. Chirikov....Pages 36-39 Discussion of Boris Chrikov's paper....Pages 40-46 Under what transformations are laws invariant?....Pages 47-88 Contingency and fundamental laws comment on Paul Weingartner “Under what transformations are laws invariant?”....Pages 89-92 Discussion of Paul Weingartner's paper....Pages 93-99 The status of determinism in an uncontrollable world....Pages 103-114 Discussion of David Miller's paper....Pages 115-122 Kinds of unpredictability in deterministic systems....Pages 123-141 Discussion of Gerhard Schurz' paper....Pages 142-151 Decoherence, determinism and chaos revisited....Pages 152-175 Discussion of H. Pierre Noyes' paper....Pages 176-188 Photons, billiards and chaos....Pages 189-201 Discussion of Pat Suppes' paper....Pages 202-207 Chaos: Algorithmic complexity vs. Dynamical instability....Pages 211-235 Discussion of Robert Batterman's paper....Pages 236-242 On the foundations of synergetics....Pages 243-279 Discussion of Arne Wunderlin's paper....Pages 280-283 Chaos research has triggered deep discussions in the philosophy of science. This volume discusses the fundamental problems of the concepts of law and of prediction in the light of chaos research. Although some familiarity with physics is assumed, the book is accessible to the general reader.