Interventionism in Statistical Mechanics

Entropy 14 (2):344-369 (2012)
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Abstract

I defend the idea that the fact that no system is entirely isolated can be used to explain the successful use of the microcanonical distribution in statistical mechanics. The argument turns on claims about what is needed for an adequate explanation of this fact: I argue in particular that various competing explanations do not meet reasonable conditions of adequacy, and that the most striking lacuna in Interventionism – its failure to explain the ‘arrow of time’ – is no real defect.

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Stephen Leeds
University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee

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Determinism and Chance.Barry Loewer - 2001 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 32 (4):609-620.
Foundations of statistical mechanics—two approaches.Stephen Leeds - 2003 - Philosophy of Science 70 (1):126-144.

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