A primer on determinism

Half-Title......Page 1
Series Title......Page 2
Title Page......Page 3
Copyright......Page 4
Dedications......Page 5
TABLE OF CONTENTS......Page 7
PREFACE......Page 13
I. INTRODUCTION......Page 15
Suggested Readings......Page 17
1. Classical Determinism: the Vision and the Context......Page 18
2. What Determinism is Not: Cause and Effect......Page 19
3. Predictability: Laplace\'s Demon......Page 20
4. Predictability: Popper\'s Demon......Page 22
5. Russell\'s Definition......Page 24
6. What Determinism Is......Page 26
7. Fear and Loathing......Page 28
8. Democracy and Symmetry......Page 30
9. Non-Laplacian Varieties of Determinism......Page 31
10. Che Sara Sara......Page 32
11. Deterministic Theories......Page 34
12. Conclusion......Page 35
Suggested Readings......Page 36
1. Classical Worlds......Page 37
2. The Apparent Failure of Determinism in Leibnizian Physics......Page 39
3. Leibniz\'s Response......Page 41
4. Newtonian Space-time......Page 43
5. Newtonian Particle Mechanics......Page 44
6. Determinism at Bay......Page 47
7. Determinism at Sea......Page 49
8. Life Rafts......Page 51
9. Infinite Billiards......Page 53
10. Heat......Page 54
11. Walling Out......Page 57
12. Old Heat......Page 58
13. Don\'t Fence Me In......Page 59
14. Classical Electromagnetism......Page 61
15. Shock(ing) Waves......Page 62
16. Viscous fluids......Page 65
17. Conclusion......Page 66
Notes......Page 67
Suggested Readings......Page 68
IV DETERMINISM IN SPECIAL RELATIVISTIC PHYSICS......Page 69
1. Special Relativistic Worlds......Page 70
3. The Relativistic Formulation of Laplacian  Determinism......Page 72
4. Laplacian Determinism — At Last!......Page 74
5. Higher Dimensions and Weak Solutions; Huygens\' Principle......Page 75
6. Domains of Prediction......Page 77
7. Particle Motion: Retarded and Advanced Action-at-a-distance......Page 80
8. Instantaneous Action-at-a-distance......Page 86
9. Tachyons......Page 89
10. Conclusion......Page 91
Suggested Readings......Page 92
V. DETERMINISM AND LAWS OF NATURE......Page 94
1. Hume\'s Definitions of \'Cause\'......Page 95
2. The Naive Regularity Account......Page 97
3. The Empiricist Constraints......Page 99
4. Mill, Ramsey, and Lewis......Page 101
5. Deductive Systematization: a Closer Look......Page 102
6. Laws as Universal and Eternal Truths......Page 104
7. Defeasibility and Degrees of Lawfulness......Page 105
8. Challenges to the Regularity Account of Laws......Page 107
9. Dispositions: the Garden Variety Type......Page 108
10. Tooley\'sCase......Page 110
11. Nomic Necessity......Page 112
12. Laws as Contingent Relations Among Universals......Page 115
13. Conclusion......Page 121
Notes......Page 123
Suggested Readings......Page 124
1. Turing Machines......Page 125
2. Determinism and Effective Computability: First Try......Page 128
3. Grzegorczyk Computability......Page 130
4. Determinism and Effective Computability: Ordinary Differential Equations......Page 131
5. Determinism and Effective Computability: Partial Differential Equations......Page 132
6. Extended Computability......Page 133
7. Generalized Computability......Page 134
8. Objections; Church\'s Thesis Revisited......Page 137
Notes......Page 140
Suggested Readings......Page 141
1. The Received View......Page 142
2. Time Translation Invariance......Page 143
4. Time Reversal Invariance......Page 144
5. Time Reversal Invariance and Futuristic and Historical Determinism......Page 145
6. Determinism Plus Time Translation Invariance Imply Periodicity......Page 146
8. Mill, Russell, Feigl, and Nagel: Refuted?......Page 147
10. Mill, Russell, Feigl, and Nagel: Modified and Qualified......Page 148
11. Preview: General Relativity and Time Symmetries......Page 149
Suggested Readings......Page 150
VIII. DETERMINISM, RANDOMNESS, AND CHAOS......Page 151
1. Defining Randomness......Page 152
2. Randomness, Disorder, and Computational Complexity......Page 155
3. Biased Coins......Page 157
4. Utter Chaos......Page 159
5. Determinism and Performance Randomness......Page 160
6. Physical Probabilities: Frequencies or Propensities?......Page 161
Notes......Page 165
Suggested Readings......Page 166
IX. DETERMINISM, INSTABILITY, AND APPARENT RANDOMNESS......Page 168
1. Stability and Instability for Fields......Page 169
2. Classical Dynamical Systems......Page 171
3. Macro-randomness: What We Want......Page 172
4. Macro-randomness: Can We Have What We Want?......Page 175
5. Instability in Classical Particle Systems......Page 176
6. Strange Attractors......Page 178
7. Conclusion.......Page 180
Appendix: the Baker\'s Transformation......Page 181
Notes......Page 182
Suggested Readings......Page 183
1. General Relativistic Worlds......Page 184
2. Time Slices......Page 186
4. Causality Conditions......Page 187
5. The Status of Causality Conditions......Page 189
6. Cauchy Surfaces......Page 190
7. The Cauchy Initial Value Problem......Page 193
8. The Significance of the Cauchy Initial Value Problem......Page 194
9. Laplacian Determinism in the Medium and the Small......Page 197
10. Singularities......Page 199
11. Cosmic Censorship......Page 202
12. Prediction......Page 207
13. Geometrodynamics......Page 208
14. The Characteristic Initial Value Problem......Page 209
Notes......Page 211
Suggested Readings......Page 212
XI. DETERMINISM IN QUANTUM PHYSICS......Page 213
1. Quantum Mechanics as More Deterministic than Classical Mechanics......Page 214
2. The Quantum State: a Closer Look......Page 216
3. The Projection Postulate......Page 220
4. The Incompleteness of Quantum Mechanics: Joint Probabilities......Page 223
5. The Theorems of Gleason and Kochen-Specker......Page 225
6. Bell\'s Theorem......Page 227
7. Realism and the Incompleteness of Quantum Mechanics......Page 229
8. The Problem of Measurement......Page 233
9. The Insolubility of the Measurement Problem......Page 236
10. Determinism and Quantum Mechanics......Page 240
11. Indeterminism, Randomness, and Stochasticity......Page 245
Notes......Page 247
Suggested Reading......Page 248
XII. DETERMINISM AND FREEWILL......Page 249
1. Moral and Legal Responsibility and the Compatibilist Position......Page 250
2. Tropisms......Page 253
3. Indeterministic Actions and the Possibility of a Science of Human Behavior......Page 257
4. Conclusion......Page 263
Selected Readings......Page 264
FINAL EXAM......Page 265
BIBLIOGRAPHY......Page 271
F......Page 284
L......Page 285
S......Page 286
Z......Page 287