Natural philosophy of cause and chance

Title ......Page 1 Copyright ......Page 2 Preface ......Page 3 Contents ......Page 4 Notation ......Page 6 I. INTRODUCTION ......Page 7 II. CAUSALITY AND DETERMINISM ......Page 11 III. ILLUSTRATION: ASTRONOMY AND PARTICLE MECHANICS ......Page 16 IV. CONTIGUITY: MECHANICS OF CONTINUOUS MEDIA; ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS; RELATIVITY AND THE FIELD THEORY OF GRAVITATION ......Page 23 V. ANTECEDENCE: THERMODYNAMICS ......Page 37 VI. CHANCE: KINETIC THEORV OF GASES; STATISTICAL MECHANICS; GENERAL KINETIC THEORY ......Page 52 VII. CHANCE AND ANTECEDENCE ......Page 77 VIII. MATTER: MASS, ENERGY, AND RADIATION; ELECTRONS AND QUANTA ......Page 80 IX. CHANCE: QUANTUM MECHANICS; INDETERMINISTIC PHYSICS; QUANTUM KINETIC THEORY OF MATTER ......Page 99 X. METAPHYSICAL CONCLUSIONS ......Page 128 2. Derivation of Newton's law from Kepler's laws (III, 13) ......Page 135 3. Cauchy's mechanics of continuous media (IV, 20) ......Page 140 4. Maxwell's equations of the electromagnetic field (IV, 24) ......Page 144 5. Relativity (IV, 27) ......Page 147 6. On classical and modern thermodynamics (V, 38) ......Page 149 7. Theorem of accessibility (V, 39) ......Page 150 8. Thermodynamics of chemical equilibrium (V, 43) ......Page 152 9. Velocity of scuntf in gases (V, 44) ......Page 155 10. Thermodynamics of irreversible processes (V, 45) ......Page 157 11. Elementary kinetic theory of gases (VI, 47) ......Page 158 13. Maxwell's functional equation (VI, 51) ......Page 159 14. The method of the most probable distribution (VI, 52) ......Page 160 15. The method of mean values (VI, 54) ......Page 166 16. Boltzmann's collision integral (VI, 56) ......Page 169 17. Irreversibility in gases (VI, 57) ......Page 171 18. Formalism of statistical mechanics (VI, 60) ......Page 173 19. Quasi-periodicity (VI, 62) ......Page 175 20. Fluctuations and Brownian motion (VI, 63) ......Page 176 21. Reduction of the multiple distribution function (VI, 67) ......Page 182 22. Construction of the multiple distribution function (VI, 68) ......Page 183 23. Derivation of the collision integral from the general theory of fluids (VI, 69) ......Page 186 24. Irreversibility in fluids (VII, 72) ......Page 189 25. Atomic physics (VIII, 75) ......Page 193 27. Operator calculus in quantum mechanics (VIII, 91) ......Page 194 28. General formulation of the uncertainty principle (IX, 94) ......Page 195 29. Dirac's derivation of the Poisson brackets in quantum mechanics (IX, 97) ......Page 197 30. Perturbation theory for the density matrix (IX, 100) ......Page 199 32. Degeneration of gases (IX, 113) ......Page 203 33. Quantum equations of motion (IX, 116) ......Page 209 34. Supraconductivity (IX, 118) ......Page 212 36. Concluding remarks (X, 127) ......Page 213 ADDENDUM 1950 ......Page 216 INDEX ......Page 218