The Demons of Science : What They Can and Cannot Tell Us About Our World

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. Front Matter....Pages i-ix Introduction....Pages 1-5 Front Matter....Pages 7-7 Thought Experiments in Ancient Greece....Pages 9-16 What Thought Experiments Represent....Pages 17-32 Models and Thought Experiments....Pages 33-46 The Function of Thought Experiments....Pages 47-49 What Thought Experiments Tell Us and Don’t Tell Us About the World....Pages 51-53 Enter the Demons....Pages 55-62 Front Matter....Pages 63-63 Laplace’s Demon: Causal and Predictive Determinism....Pages 65-72 Causality, Determinism and the Block Universe....Pages 73-75 The Time-Reversal Invariance of Fundamental Laws....Pages 77-79 Determinism and Its Implications....Pages 81-100 Determinism and Free Will....Pages 101-111 What Laplace’s Demon Tells Us and Does not Tell Us About the World....Pages 113-114 Front Matter....Pages 115-115 Local and Cosmic Arrows of Time....Pages 117-122 Maxwell’s Demon....Pages 123-125 Loschmidt’s Demon: Reversibility and Irreversibility....Pages 127-130 Indeterminism....Pages 131-141 The Past-Future Asymmetry....Pages 143-152 What Maxwell’s Demon Tells Us and Does not Tell Us About the World....Pages 153-166 Front Matter....Pages 167-169 The Eternal Recurrence of Events....Pages 171-171 Landsberg’s Demon....Pages 173-176 Physical and Phenomenal Time....Pages 177-190 The Evolution of the Universe....Pages 191-204 Time and Change....Pages 205-208 Is There a Master Arrow of Time?....Pages 209-212 What Landsberg’s Demon Tells Us and Does not Tell Us About the Arrows of Time....Pages 213-221 Front Matter....Pages 223-225 Conclusion....Pages 227-227 Back Matter....Pages 229-230 ....Pages 231-251