Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Robertson, Katie

Titel

Asymmetry, Abstraction, and Autonomy: Justifying Coarse-Graining in Statistical Mechanics

Ist Teil von

• The British journal for the philosophy of science, 2020-06, Vol.71 (2), p.547-579

Ort / Verlag

England: The University of Chicago Press

Erscheinungsjahr

2020

Quelle

Oxford Journals 2020 Humanities

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• While the fundamental laws of physics are time-reversal invariant, most macroscopic processes are irreversible. Given that the fundamental laws are taken to underpin all other processes, how can the fundamental time-symmetry be reconciled with the asymmetry manifest elsewhere? In statistical mechanics (SM), progress can be made with this question. What I dub the ‘Zwanzig–Zeh–Wallace framework’ can be used to construct the irreversible equations of SM from the underlying microdynamics. Yet this framework uses coarse-graining, a procedure that has faced much criticism. I focus on two objections in the literature: claims that coarse-graining makes time-asymmetry (i) ‘illusory’ and (ii) ‘anthropocentric’. I argue that these objections arise from an unsatisfactory justification of coarse-graining prevalent in the literature, rather than from coarse-graining itself. This justification relies on the idea of measurement imprecision. By considering the role that abstraction and autonomy play, I provide an alternative justification and offer replies to the illusory and anthropocentric objections. Finally, I consider the broader consequences of this alternative justification: the connection to debates about inter-theoretic reduction and the implication that the time-asymmetry in SM is weakly emergent. 1. Introduction 1.1. Prospectus2. The Zwanzig–Zeh–Wallace Framework3. Why Does This Method Work? 3.1. The special conditions account3.2. When is a density forwards-compatible?4. Anthropocentrism and Illusion: Two Objections 4.1. The two objections in more detail4.2. Against the justification by measurement imprecision5. An Alternative Justification 5.1. Abstraction and autonomy5.2. An illustration: the Game of Life6. Reply to Illusory7. Reply to Anthropocentric8. The Wider Landscape: Concluding Remarks 8.1. Inter-theoretic relations8.2. The nature of irreversibility