The Demons of Science: What They Can and Cannot Tell Us About Our World - Softcover

Weinert, Friedel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 3319811010 ISBN 13: 9783319811017

Verlag: Springer, 2018

Inhaltsangabe

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

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Friedel Weinert is professor of history and philosophy of science at the University of Bradford in the UK. He is the author of several books about the interactions of science and philosophy – The Scientist as Philosopher (2004); Copernicus, Darwin and Freud (2009); The March of Time (2013)– as well as editor of Laws of Nature (1995) and co-editor of Compendium of Quantum Physics (2009) and Evolution 2.0 (2012).

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

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Springer
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2018
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 3319811010
• ISBN 13: 9783319811017
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 264
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Springer Nature Customer Service Center GmbH; ProductSafety@springernature.com; ; Europaplatz 3; Heidelberg; 69115; Deutschland