Inconsistency, Asymmetry, and Non-Locality

Philosophical Issues in Classical Electrodynamics

Mathias Frisch

220 pages, parution le 17/06/2005

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Résumé

Mathias Frisch provides the first sustained philosophical discussion of conceptual problems in classical particle-field theories. Part of the book focuses on the problem of a satisfactory equation of motion for charged particles interacting with electromagnetic fields. As Frisch shows, the standard equation of motion results in a mathematically inconsistent theory, yet there is no fully consistent and conceptually unproblematic alternative theory. Frisch describes in detail how the search for a fundamental equation of motion is partly driven by pragmatic considerations (like simplicity and mathematical tractability) that can override the aim for full consistency.

The book also offers a comprehensive review and criticism of both the physical and philosophical literature on the temporal asymmetry exhibited by electromagnetic radiation fields, including Einstein's discussion of the asymmetry and Wheeler and Feynman's influential absorber theory of radiation. Frisch argues that attempts to derive the asymmetry from thermodynamic or cosmological considerations fail and proposes that we should understand the asymmetry as due to a fundamental causal constraint.

The book's overarching philosophical thesis is that standard philosophical accounts that strictly identify scientific theories with a mathematical formalism and a mapping function specifying the theory's ontology are inadequate, since they permit neither inconsistent yet genuinely successful theories nor thick causal notions to be part of fundamental physics.

Sommaire

Introduction : theories and models
Inconsistency
In search of coherence
Non-locality
The arrow of radiation
Absorber and entropy theories of radiation
The retardation condition
David Lewis on waves and counterfactuals
Conclusion

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	PAPIER
Éditeur(s)	Oxford University Press
Auteur(s)	Mathias Frisch
Parution	17/06/2005
Nb. de pages	220
Format	16 x 24
Couverture	Relié
Poids	460g
Intérieur	Noir et Blanc
EAN13	9780195172157
ISBN13	978-0-19-517215-7