The aim of this interdisciplinary study is to reconstruct the evolution of our changing conceptions of time in the light of scientific discoveries. It will adopt a new perspective and organize the material around three central themes, which run through our history of time reckoning: cosmology and regularity; stasis and flux; symmetry and asymmetry. It is the physical criteria that humans choose relativistic effects and time-symmetric equations or dynamic-kinematic effects and asymmetric conditions that establish our views on the nature of time. This book will defend a dynamic rather than a static view of time.
1 Evolving Conceptions of Time in the Light of Scientific Discoveries.- Introduction.- 2 Time and Cosmology.- Greek Astronomy.- Plato and Aristotle.- The Need for Physical Time.- Kants Cosmology.- Time and Causality.- The Topology of Time.- The Metric of Time.- Some Advances in the Theory of Time in Classical Physics.- Time in Modern Physics.- The Measurement of Time in Quantum Mechanics.- Why Measurement?.- On Permissible Inferences from Scientific Theories.- 3 Flux and Stasis.-Parmenidean Stasis and Heraclitean Flux.- Idealism About Time.- Realism About Time.- Relationism About Time.- The Theory of Relativity and the Block Universe.- Minkowski Spacetime and the Block Universe.- An Alternative Representation of Minkowski SpaceTime.- SpaceTime and Invariance.- The General Theory of Relativity.- Substantivalism and Relationism About SpaceTime.- ?4 Symmetry and Asymmetry.- Fundamental Equations and Human Experience.- Entropy and Order.- Reversibility and Irreversibility.- The Role of Boundary Conditions.- The Emergence of Time.- Time in Basic Quantum Mechanics.- Time Travel Scenarios.- 5 Conclusion.- Bibliography.- Index.
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![The March of Time: Evolving Conceptions of Time in the Light of Scientific Discoveries [Paperback]](/itemImage/2/8/5/1/2_6664449.jpg "The March of Time: Evolving Conceptions of Time in the Light of Scientific Discoveries [Paperback]")