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Three's a Crowd: On Causes, Entropy and Physical Eschatology

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Abstract

Recent discussions of theorigins of the thermodynamical temporal asymmetry (“thearrow of time”) by Huw Price and others arecritically assessed. This serves as amotivation for consideration of relationshipbetween thermodynamical and cosmologicalcauses. Although the project of clarificationof the thermodynamical explanandum is certainlywelcome, Price excludes another interestingoption, at least as viable as the sort ofAcausal-Particular approach he favors, andarguably more in the spirit of Boltzmannhimself. Thus, the competition of explanatoryprojects includes three horses, not two. Inaddition, it is the Acausal-Particular approachthat could benefit enormously from dissociationfrom fanciful ideas of low-entropy futureboundary conditions entertained by Price. Novelrevolutionary developments in observationalcosmology, as well as in the nascentastrophysical discipline of physicaleschatology, have obliterated such hypotheses.Also, the Acausal-Anthropic approach wepropose, offers another clear instance ofdisteleological nature of the anthropicprinciple.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Astronomical Observatory Belgrade, Volgina 7, 11160, Belgrade, Serbia and Montengro

    Milan M. Ćirković

  2. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, R3T 2N2, Canada

    Vesna Milošević-Zdjelar

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  1. Milan M. Ćirković
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  2. Vesna Milošević-Zdjelar
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Ćirković, M.M., Milošević-Zdjelar, V. Three's a Crowd: On Causes, Entropy and Physical Eschatology. Foundations of Science 9, 1–24 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:FODA.0000014883.92569.1c

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