The Demons of Science What They Can and Cannot Tell Us About Our World [Hardcover]

This book is the first all-encompassing exploration of the role of demons inphilosophical and scientific thought experiments. In Part I, the author explains the importance of thought experiments in science andphilosophy. Part II considers Laplaces Demon, whose claim is that the world iscompletely deterministic. Part III introduces Maxwells Demon, who - by contrast - experiences a world that is probabilistic and indeterministic. Part IV explores Nietzsches thesis of the cyclic and eternal recurrence of events. In each casea number of philosophical consequences regarding determinism and indeterminism, the arrows of time, the nature of the mind andfree will are said to follow from the Demonss worldviews. The book investigates what these Demons - and others - can and cannot tell us about our world.  

I. Thought Experiments: Thought Experiments in Ancient Greece.- What Thought Experiments Represent.- Models and Thought Experiments.- The Function of Thought Experiments.- What Thought Experiments Tell Us and Dont Tell Us About theWorld.- Enter theDemons.- II. Laplace's Demon: Laplaces Demon: Causal and Predictive Determinism.- Causality, Determinism and the Block Universe.- The Time-Reversal Invariance of Fundamental Laws.- Determinism and Its Implications.- Determinism and Free Will.- What Laplace's Demon Tells Us and Does not Tell Us About the World.- III. Maxwell's Demon: Local and Cosmic Arrows of Time.- Maxwells Demon.- Loschmidts Demon: Reversibility and Irreversibility.- Indeterminism.- Indeterminism and Free Will.- Entropy.- The Past-Future Asymmetry.- What Maxwells Demon Tells Us and Does not Tell Us About the World.- IV. Nietzsche's Demon: The Eternal Recurrence of Events.- Landsbergs Demon.- Physical and Phenomenal Time.- The Evolution of the Universe.- Time and Change.- Is There a MasterArrol¨