The physics of emergence / Robert C. Bishop
- Author:
- Bishop, Robert C., 1961-
- Published:
- San Rafael [California] (40 Oak Drive, San Rafael, CA, 94903, USA) : Morgan & Claypool Publishers, [2019] and Bristol [England] (Temple Circus, Temple Way, Bristol BS1 6HG, UK) : IOP Publishing, [2019]
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource (various pagings).
- Additional Creators:
- Morgan & Claypool Publishers and Institute of Physics (Great Britain)
- Access Online:
- ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu
- Series:
- IOP release 6 and IOP concise physics, 2053-2571
- Contents:
- 1. Brief history of the debate -- 1.1. The modern emergentists -- 1.2. Einstein, Pauli, and Schrödinger -- 1.3. The return of emergence -- 1.4. Questioning the hierarchy -- 1.5. Weinberg and the response to P.W. Anderson -- 1.6. Universality and independence, 2. Some physics objections to emergence -- 2.1. Physics is fundamentally causally closed -- 2.2. Fundamental principles/laws govern everything -- 2.3. Symmetry is reduction -- 2.4. Coherence of physics and the sciences -- 2.5. Ontological emergence violates fundamental laws -- 2.6. Atomism, context and reductionism -- 2.7. Bare versus dressed states, 3. Contextual emergence -- 3.1. A framework of conditions -- 3.2. Stability conditions -- 3.3. Contextual topologies and abstraction -- 3.4. Contextual topologies and contexts -- 3.5. Possibility spaces -- 3.6. Ontic/epistemic states and observables, 4. Case studies from physics -- 4.1. Convection as a contextually-emergent state -- 4.2. Temperature as a contextually-emergent property -- 4.3. Molecular structure as a contextually-emergent property -- 4.4. Brief examples, 5. Responding to objections -- 5.1. Physics is fundamentally causally closed -- 5.2. Fundamental principles/laws govern everything -- 5.3. Symmetry is reduction -- 5.4. Coherence of physics and the sciences -- 5.5. Ontological emergence violates fundamental laws -- 5.6. Atomism, context and reductionism -- 5.7. Is it all just boundary conditions? -- 5.8. Everything is in the fundamental domain, and 6. Broader implications -- 6.1. Redefining fundamentality -- 6.2. Contextual emergence of the macroscopic -- 6.3. Implications for the universal wave function -- 6.4. Laws of nature -- 6.5. Determinism -- 6.6. Contextual emergence beyond physics.
- Summary:
- This book explores whether physics points to a reductive or an emergent structure of the world and proposes a physics-motivated conception of emergence that leaves behind many of the problematic intuitions shaping the philosophical conceptions. Examining several detailed case studies reveals results that point to stability conditions playing a crucial though underappreciated role in the physics of emergence. This contextual emergence has thought-provoking consequences for physics and beyond.
- Subject(s):
- ISBN:
- 9781643271569 ebook, 9781643271545 mobi, and 9781643271538 print
- Audience Notes:
- Physics students, researchers, as well as those interested in physics.
- Note:
- "Version: 20190601"--Title page verso. and "A Morgan & Claypool publication as part of IOP Concise Physics"--Title page verso.
- Bibliography Note:
- Includes bibliographical references.
- Other Forms:
- Also available in print.
- Technical Details:
- Mode of access: World Wide Web. and System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader, EPUB reader, or Kindle reader.
- Administrative History:
- Robert C. Bishop studied physics at the University of Texas at Austin under John Wheeler, and philosophy under Fred Kronz and Robert Kane. He has held research postdocs in Freiburg and Konstanz, Germany, and taught philosophy of science and philosophy of physics at the London School of Economics, Oxford University and Rice University. He is currently Associate Professor of Physics and Philosophy and the John and Madeleine McIntyre Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at Wheaton College.
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