Werndl, Charlotte (2015) Determinism and Indeterminism. [Preprint]
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Abstract
This article focuses on three themes concerning determinism and indeterminism. The first theme is observational equivalence between deterministic and indeterministic models. Here I discuss several results about observational equivalence and present an argument on how to choose between deterministic and indeterministic models involving indirect evidence. The second theme is whether Newtonian physics is indeterministic. I argue that the answer depends on what one takes Newtonian mechanics to be, and I highlight how contemporary debates on this issue differ from those in the nineteenth century. The third major theme is how the method of arbitrary functions can be used to make sense of deterministic probabilities. I discuss various ways of interpreting the initial probability distributions and argue that they are best understood as physical, biological etc. quantities characterising the particular situation at hand. Also, I emphasise that the method of arbitrary functions deserves more attention than it has received so far.
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| Item Type: | Preprint | ||||||
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| Keywords: | determinism, indeterminism, observational equivalence, indirect evidence, Newtonian physics, method of arbitrary functions, probability | ||||||
| Subjects: | Specific Sciences > Complex Systems General Issues > Determinism/Indeterminism General Issues > Models and Idealization Specific Sciences > Physics Specific Sciences > Probability/Statistics General Issues > Theory/Observation |
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| Depositing User: | Charlotte Werndl | ||||||
| Date Deposited: | 16 Sep 2015 13:05 | ||||||
| Last Modified: | 16 Sep 2015 13:05 | ||||||
| Item ID: | 11678 | ||||||
| Official URL: | http://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/ | ||||||
| Subjects: | Specific Sciences > Complex Systems General Issues > Determinism/Indeterminism General Issues > Models and Idealization Specific Sciences > Physics Specific Sciences > Probability/Statistics General Issues > Theory/Observation |
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| Date: | 2015 | ||||||
| URI: | https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/11678 |
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