時間とは一体何か。熱力学第二法則から複雑系や生命の起源まで、時間に関わる現在の物理的理解の方向性について案内する一冊。ニュートンに始まり3次元の「空間」と1次元の「時間」が4次元の「時空」というアインシュタインの概念を経て今日に至るまでの物理理論の発展を振り返ります。時間観が相対性理論により一変させられたことで生じた論争や哲学的戸惑いにも言及するほか、その溝を埋めてくれる今日の統計力学、認知科学、現象学などの立場からの解説も補っています。
What is time? What does it mean for time to pass? Is it possible to travel in time? What is the difference between the past and future? Until the work of Newton, these questions were purely topics of philosophical speculation. Since then we've learned a great deal about time, and its study has moved from a subject of philosophical reflection to instead became part of the subject matter of physics.
This Very Short Introduction introduces readers to the current physical understanding of the direction of time, from the Second Law of Thermodynamics to the emergence of complexity and life. Jenann Ismael charts the line of development in physical theory from Newton, via Einstein's Theory of Relativity, to the current day. Einstein's innovations led to a vision of time very different from the familiar time of everyday sense. In this new vision, time is one of the dimensions in which the universe is extended alongside the spatial dimensions. The universe appears as a static block of events, in which there is no more a difference between past and future than there is between east and west. Discussing the controversy and philosophical confusion which surrounded the reception of this new vision, Ismael also covers the contemporary mixture of statistical mechanics, cognitive science, and phenomenology that point the way to reconciling the familiar time of everyday sense with the vision of time presented in Einstein's theories.
Introduction
1:History up through Newton
2:From space and time to space-time: the era of Einstein
3:Philosophical implications of the relativistic conception of time
4:The direction of time
5:The time of human experience
6:The big picture and new horizons
Further Reading
Index
ISBN : 9780198832669
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