Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T19:10:40.062Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Thermodynamics and Some Undecidable Physical Questions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2022

Jerome Rothstein
Jerome Rothstein*
Affiliation:
Laboratory for Electronics, Inc
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

It is shown that a number of questions, usually considered philosophical rather than scientific, can be reformulated to apply to a world of automata or “well-informed heat engines.” In some cases they admit of physical answers, but in many cases obtaining answers entails violation of the second law of thermodynamics. This is demonstrated explicitly for the problem of determinism and free will, for the discovery of the origin or ultimate fate of the universe, or for the discovery of causes or purposes in nature.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 31 , Issue 1 , January 1964 , pp. 40 - 48
Copyright
Copyright © 1964 The Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

∗∗

Presented before the International Congress for Logic, Methodology, and Philosophy of Science, Stanford University, August, 1960.

References

[1] Bridgman, P. W., The Nature of Thermodynamics, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, Mass., 1941).10.4159/harvard.9780674731356CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[2] Brillouin, L., Journal of Applied Physics, 22, 335 (1951), Physical Review, 78, 627 (1950) (L).Google Scholar
[3] Demers, P., Canadian Journal of Research, 22, 27 (March 1944); A 23, 47 (May 1945).Google Scholar
[4] Jacobson, H. Trans. New York Academy of Science, 14, 6 (1951).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[5] Maxwell, J. C., Theory of Heat, p. 328. Quoted in Jeans, J., The Dynamical Theory of Gases, fourth edition (reprint), p. 183, Dover Publications (New York, 1954).Google Scholar
[6] Rosenblueth, A., Wiener, W., and Bigelow, J., Philosophy of Science 10, 18 (1943).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[7] Rothstein, J., Science 114, 171 (1951).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[8] Rothstein, J., Communication, Organization, and Science, Falcon's Wing Press (Indian Hills, Colorado, 1958).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[9] Rothstein, J., Physical Review, 86, 640 (1952) (abstract).Google Scholar
[10] Rothstein, J., Physical Review, 95, 643 (1954) (abstract).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[11] Rothstein, J., American Journal of Physics, 25, 510 (1957).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[12] Rothstein, J., “Physical Demonology”, Methodos, No. 42 Vol. XI 94 (1959).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[13] Szilard, L. Zeit. f. Physik, 33, 840 (1929).Google Scholar