Laws of Nature
:
Peter Mittelstaedt, Paul A. Weingartner
:
Laws of Nature
:
Springer-Verlag
:
9783540283034
:
1
:
CHF 132.90
:
:
Allgemeines, Lexika
:
English
:
376
:
Wasserzeichen/DRM
:
PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
:
PDF
Thisbook isnotatextbook tobecomeacquainted with thelaws ofnature. An elementaryknowledgeaboutlawso nature,inparticularthelawsofp ysics,is presupposed. Thebookisratherintendedtoprov deaclari?cationofconcepts and properties of the laws of nature. The authors would like to emphasise that this book has been developed - created - as a real teamwork. Although the chapters (and in some cases parts of the chapters) were originally written by one of the two authors, all of them were discussed thoroughly and in detail and have been revised and complemented afterwards. Even if both authors were in agreement on most of the foundational issues discussed in the book, they did not feel it necessary to balance every viewpoint. Thus some individual and personal di?erence or emphasis will still be recognisable from the chapters written by the di?erent authors. In this sense the authors feel speci?cally responsible for the chapters as follows: Mittelstaedt for Chaps. 4, 9. 3, 10, 11. 2, 12, 13 and Weingartner for Chaps. 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8. 2, 9. 2, 9. 4. The remaining parts are joint sections. Most of the chapters are formulated as questions and they begin with arguments pro and contra. Then a detailed answer is proposed which contains a systematic discussion of the question. This is the respective main part of the chapter. It sometimes begins with a survey of the problem by giving some important answers to it from history (cf. Chaps. 6 and 9).
Preface
5
Contents
7
Introduction
13
What is a Law of Nature?
15
1 Are there Laws of Nature at All?
16
2 Can the Laws of Nature be Genuine Laws?
24
3 Are the Laws of Logic Laws of Nature?
38
4 Are the Laws of Mathematics Laws of Nature?
59
Properties of Laws
73
5 Does Every Law of Nature Express an Invariance ( Symmetry)?
74
6 Is Every Law of Nature Spacetime Invariant?
103
7 Dynamical and Statistical Laws
149
8 Laws, Boundary Conditions, and Constants of Nature
182
9 Causality and Predictability
206
10 Laws and Objects
272
11 Completeness and Reliability
287
Why are Laws of Nature Valid?
313
12 Statistical Laws
314
13 Quantum Logic
334
References
352
Index
373
