Article ID: CBB000410822

Foundations of Statistical Mechanics: Two Approaches (2003)

unapi

This paper is a discussion of David Albert's approach to the foundations of classical statistical mechanics. I point out a respect in which his account makes a stronger claim about the statistical mechanical probabilities than is usually made, and I suggest what might be motivation for this. I outline a less radical approach, which I attribute to Boltzmann, and I give some reasons for thinking that this approach is all we need, and also the most we are likely to get. The issue between the two accounts turns out to be one about the explanatory role probabilities play in statistical mechanics.

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https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB000410822/

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Authors & Contributors
Hemmo, Meir
Rogers, David M.
Uffink, Jos
Tavel, Morton
Stöltzner, Michael
Shenker, Orly R.
Journals
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics
Substantia: An International Journal of the History of Chemistry
Physics in Perspective
Metascience: An International Review Journal for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science
Journal for General Philosophy of Science
Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society
Publishers
Cambridge University Press
University of Chicago Press
Rutgers University Press
Oxford University Press
Ashgate
Concepts
Physics
Statistical mechanics
Probability and statistics
Philosophy of science
Quantum mechanics
Philosophy
People
Boltzmann, Ludwig
Maxwell, James Clerk
Mach, Ernst
Einstein, Albert
Zermelo, Ernst
Poincaré, Jules Henri
Time Periods
19th century
20th century
20th century, early
Modern
21st century
20th century, late
Places
Germany
Austria
Vienna (Austria)
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