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Group-theoretic Atemporality in Physics and its Boundaries (Another look at reversibility, irreversibility, and their philosophical implications)

Punin, Peter (2016) Group-theoretic Atemporality in Physics and its Boundaries (Another look at reversibility, irreversibility, and their philosophical implications). [Preprint]

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Abstract

French philosopher H. Bergson criticizes general philosophy insofar as it neglects or
even ignores the temporality of time. Concerning general philosophy, Bergson's remarks
are probably outdated, whereas contemporary philosophy of science does continue to encounter
analogous problems.
For essentially group-theoretic reasons, physics, despite the presence of a temporal dimension in
physical spaces, describes atemporal systems. These group-theoretic reasons being at the origin
of physical atemporality also ensure the extraordinary epistemic power of physics based
on the possibility of distortion-free partial approaches, symmetry in prediction and retro-diction,
experimentation to be repeated under identical conditions, idealization, renormalization, and so on.
But the investigation field of physics allowing such group-theoretically founded approaches
represents a highly improbable exception. So any tentative to transpose physics beyond the
boundaries of its group-theoretically delimited investigation field unavoidably leads to the problem
raised by Bergson: a time reduced to something without temporality. This point undermines certain
contemporary speculations advanced in the name of physics, such as “chaosogenesis” and, above all,
linkages between multiverse approaches based on eternal inflation and the so-called “weak anthropic
principle.”


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Item Type: Preprint
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Punin, Peterpeter.punin@wanadoo.fr
Keywords: Atemporality, Bergson, the epistemological status of physics, evolution, group theory, group theory in physics, idealization in physics, irreversibility, laws of nature, mathematical Platonism, multiverse, renormalization, renormalization group, reversibility, scientific Platonism, space-time, temporality, time in physics, weak anthropic principle (WAP).
Subjects: General Issues > Laws of Nature
General Issues > Models and Idealization
General Issues > Philosophers of Science
General Issues > Reductionism/Holism
Specific Sciences > Physics > Statistical Mechanics/Thermodynamics
Specific Sciences > Physics > Symmetries/Invariances
General Issues > Theory Change
Depositing User: Peter Punin
Date Deposited: 30 Mar 2016 18:46
Last Modified: 30 Mar 2016 18:46
Item ID: 11984
Subjects: General Issues > Laws of Nature
General Issues > Models and Idealization
General Issues > Philosophers of Science
General Issues > Reductionism/Holism
Specific Sciences > Physics > Statistical Mechanics/Thermodynamics
Specific Sciences > Physics > Symmetries/Invariances
General Issues > Theory Change
Date: 20 March 2016
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/11984

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