Time, The Physical Magnitude (Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science, 99)

In an age characterized by impersonality and a fear of individuality this book is indeed unusual. It is personal, individualistic and idiosyncratic - a record of the scientific adventure of a single mind. Most scientific writing today is so depersonalized that it is impossible to recognize the man behind the work, even when one knows him. Costa de Beauregard's scientific career has focused on three domains - special relativity, statistics and irreversibility, and quantum mechanics. In Time, the Physical Magnitude he has provided a personal vade mecum to those problems, concepts, and ideas with which he has been so long preoccupied. Some years ago we were struck by a simple and profound observa­ tion of Mendel Sachs, the gist of which follows. Relativity is based on very simple ideas but, because it requires highly complicated mathe­ matics, people find it difficult. Quantum mechanics, on the other hand, derives from very complicated principles but, since its mathematics is straightforward, people feel they understand it. In some ways they are like the bourgeois gentilhomme of Moliere in that they speak quantum mechanics without knowing what it is. Costa de Beauregard recognizes the complexity of quantum mechanics. A great virtue of the book is that he does not hide or shy away from the complexity. He exposes it fully while presenting his ideas in a non-dogmatic way. Front Matter....Pages i-xxiii Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Introductory Remarks....Pages 3-9 Front Matter....Pages 11-11 The More Than Two Millennia of Euclidean Geometry....Pages 13-16 The Three Centuries of Newtonian Mechanics: Universal Time and Absolute Space....Pages 17-27 Three Centuries of Kinematical Optics....Pages 28-41 Todays NEC Plus Ultra of Metrology and Chronometry: ‘Equivalence’ of Space and Time....Pages 42-52 Entering the Four-Dimensional Spacetime Paradigm....Pages 53-66 The Magic of Spacetime Geometry....Pages 67-94 Front Matter....Pages 95-95 Overview....Pages 97-118 Phenomenological Irreversibility....Pages 119-128 Retarded Causality as a Statistical Concept. Arrowless Microcausality....Pages 129-141 Irreversibility as a Cosmic Phenomenon....Pages 142-149 Lawlike Reversibility and Factlike Irreversibility in the Negentropy-Information Transition....Pages 150-163 Front Matter....Pages 165-165 Overview....Pages 167-184 1900–1925: The Quantum Springs Out, and Spreads....Pages 185-195 1925–1927: The Dawn of Quantum Mechanics with a Shadow: Relativistic Covariance Lost....Pages 196-218 1927–1949: From Quantum Mechanics to Quantum Field Theory: Relativistic Covariance Slowly Recovered....Pages 219-232 Parity Violations and CPT Invariance....Pages 233-243 Paradox and Paradigm: The Einstein—Podolsky—Rosen Correlations....Pages 244-264 S -Matrix, Lorentz-and- CPT Invariance, and Einstein—Podolsky—Rosen Correlations....Pages 265-284 Front Matter....Pages 285-285 On General Relativity....Pages 287-294 Front Matter....Pages 285-285 An Outsider’s Look at Cosmology, and Overall Conclusions....Pages 295-298 Back Matter....Pages 299-340