The Past Hypothesis and the Nature of Physical Laws

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2008.00611v2
• Date: Thu, 17 Sep 2020 22:50:46 GMT
• Title: The Past Hypothesis and the Nature of Physical Laws
• Authors: Eddy Keming Chen
• Abstract summary: I examine the role of the Past Hypothesis in the Boltzmannian account. I defend the view that the Past Hypothesis is a candidate fundamental law of nature.
• Score: 0.0
• License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Abstract: If the Past Hypothesis underlies the arrows of time, what is the status of the Past Hypothesis? In this paper, I examine the role of the Past Hypothesis in the Boltzmannian account and defend the view that the Past Hypothesis is a candidate fundamental law of nature. Such a view is known to be compatible with Humeanism about laws, but as I argue it is also supported by a minimal non-Humean "governing" view. Some worries arise from the non-dynamical and time-dependent character of the Past Hypothesis as a boundary condition, the intrinsic vagueness in its specification, and the nature of the initial probability distribution. I show that these worries do not have much force, and in any case they become less relevant in a new quantum framework for analyzing time's arrows -- the Wentaculus. Hence, the view that the Past Hypothesis is a candidate fundamental law should be more widely accepted than it is now.

Related papers

• The Decoherent Arrow of Time and the Entanglement Past Hypothesis [0.0]
  We argue that for the decoherent arrow of time, the quantum state of the universe is more mixed in the future than in the past. According to what we call the Entanglement Past Hypothesis, the initial quantum state of the universe had very low entanglement entropy.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2024-05-06T12:34:49Z)
• Betting on what is neither verifiable nor falsifiable [18.688474183114085]
  We propose an approach to betting on such events via options, or equivalently as bets on the outcome of a "verification-falsification game" Our work thus acts as an alternative to the existing framework of Garrabrant induction for logical uncertainty, and relates to the stance known as constructivism in the philosophy of mathematics.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2024-01-29T17:30:34Z)
• A New Paradigm for Counterfactual Reasoning in Fairness and Recourse [12.119272303766056]
  The traditional paradigm for counterfactual reasoning in this literature is the interventional counterfactual. An inherent limitation of this paradigm is that some demographic interventions may not translate into the formalisms of interventional counterfactuals. In this work, we explore a new paradigm based instead on the backtracking counterfactual.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2024-01-25T04:28:39Z)
• When Is Inductive Inference Possible? [3.4991031406102238]
  We provide a tight characterization of inductive inference by establishing a novel link to online learning theory. We prove that inductive inference is possible if and only if the hypothesis class is a countable union of online learnable classes. Our main technical tool is a novel non-uniform online learning framework, which may be of independent interest.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2023-11-30T20:02:25Z)
• Logic meets Wigner's Friend (and their Friends) [49.1574468325115]
  We take a fresh look at Wigner's Friend thought-experiment and some of its more recent variants and extensions. We discuss various solutions proposed in the literature, focusing on a few questions.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2023-07-04T13:31:56Z)
• The Wentaculus: Density Matrix Realism Meets the Arrow of Time [0.0]
  Wentaculus is a new approach to time's arrow in a quantum universe. On the Wentaculus, the quantum state of the universe is sufficiently simple to be a law, and the arrow of time can be traced back to an exact boundary condition.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2022-11-08T03:02:12Z)
• Backtracking Counterfactuals [6.709991492637819]
  We explore and formalise an alternative mode of counterfactual reasoning within the structural causal model (SCM) framework. Despite ample evidence that humans backtrack, the present work constitutes to the best of our knowledge, the first general account and algorithmisation of backtracking counterfactuals.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2022-11-01T14:07:30Z)
• Governing Without A Fundamental Direction of Time: Minimal Primitivism about Laws of Nature [0.0]
  The Great Divide in metaphysical debates about laws of nature is between Humeans and non-Humeans. We propose a minimal primitivism about laws of nature according to which there is no such requirement.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2021-09-19T21:09:39Z)
• Testing quantum theory with thought experiments [4.847980206213335]
  How should one model systems that include agents who are themselves using quantum theory? We give a state-of-the-art overview on quantum thought experiments involving observers.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2021-06-09T18:08:23Z)
• From Time Asymmetry to Quantum Entanglement: The Humean Unification [0.0]
  Humeanism allows us to incorporate the Past Hypothesis and the Statistical Postulate into the best system. We call the resultant theory the Humean unification. What gives rise to time's arrow is also responsible for quantum phenomena.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2020-06-09T03:17:04Z)
• Fundamental Nomic Vagueness [0.0]
  I characterize fundamental nomic vagueness as the existence of borderline lawful worlds. I suggest that such vagueness can be regarded as 'vagueness in the world'
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2020-06-08T01:41:43Z)

This list is automatically generated from the titles and abstracts of the papers in this site.

This site does not guarantee the quality of this site (including all information) and is not responsible for any consequences.