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Probabilities in Physics

Online ISBN:
9780191730603
Print ISBN:
9780199577439
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Book

Probabilities in Physics

Claus Beisbart (ed.),
Claus Beisbart
(ed.)
Dortmund University of Technology
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Stephan Hartmann (ed.)
Stephan Hartmann
(ed.)
Tilburg University
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Published online:
22 September 2011
Published in print:
1 September 2011
Online ISBN:
9780191730603
Print ISBN:
9780199577439
Publisher:
Oxford University Press

Abstract

Many theories and models from physics are probabilistic. This observation raises several philosophical questions: What are probabilities in physics? Do they reflect objective chances which exist independently of the human mind? Or do they only express subjective credences and thus capture our own uncertainty about the world? Finally, which metaphysical lessons, if at all, can one draw from the largely probabilistic character of physics? The chapters collected in this volume address these questions and provide a detailed philosophical appraisal of the status of probabilities in all of physics. Particular emphasis is laid upon statistical physics and quantum mechanics. Many chapters reflect a desire to understand probabilities from physics as objective chances. These chances are characterized, e.g., as time-averages, as probabilities from a best system in the terms of David Lewis, or using the Boltzmannian typicality approach. Other chapters are sympathetic to a Bayesian view of probabilities in physics. The chapters about quantum mechanics elucidate the peculiar characteristics of quantum correlations and discuss strategies to justify the Born Rule. Finally, the chapters of this volume demonstrate how closely interpretive issues about probabilities are entangled with other foundational problems of physics such as the Reversibility Paradox, the ontology of the quantum world and the question whether the world is deterministic.

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