Everywhere And Everywhen (adventures In Physics And Philosophy)

By (author) Nick Huggett; By (author) Huggett Nick
Short description/annotation
This book, written for the general reader, explores the fundamental issues concerning the nature of time and space, and quantum mechanics. It shows how physics and philosophy work together to answer some of the deepest questions ever asked about the world.
Description
Why does time pass and space does not? Are there just three dimensions? What is a quantum particle? Nick Huggett shows that philosophy - armed with a power to analyze fundamental concepts and their relationship to the human experience — has much to say about these profound questions about the universe. In Everywhere and Everywhen, Huggett charts a journey that peers into some of the oldest questions about the world, through some of the newest, such as: What shape is space? Does it have an edge? What is the difference between past and future? What is time in relativity? Is time travel possible? Are there other universes? Huggett shows that answers to these profound questions are not just reserved for physics, and that philosophy can not only address but help advance our view of our deepest questions about the universe, space, and time, and their implications for humanity. His lively, accessible introduction to these topics is suitable for a general reader with no previous exposure to these profound and exciting questions.
Table of contents
1. A Longish Introduction: The Problem of Change ; 1.1 Melissus''s Paradox ; 1.2 What is Change? ; 1.3 Laws ; 1.4 Spacetime Today ; 2. Zeno''s Paradoxes: 2.1 The Dichotomy Paradox ; 2.2 ''Supertasks'' ; 3. Zeno''s Arrow Paradox: 3.1 The Paradox ; 3.2 What Philosophy Can Teach Physics ; 4. The Shape of Space I-Topology ; 4.1 An End to Space? ; 4.2 Neither Bounded Nor Infinite ; 4.3 What Physics Can Teach Philosophy ; 5. Beyond the Third Dimension? ; 5.1 Multi-Dimensional Life ; 5.2 More Than Three Dimensions? ; 6. Why Three Dimensions? ; 6.1 The Force of Gravity and the Dimensions of Space ; 6.2 Does Intelligent Life Take Three Dimensions? ; 6.3 Is the Universe Made for Humans? ; 6.4 The Megaverse ; 6.5 Philosophy in Physics ; 7. The Shape of Space II-Curved Space? ; 7.1 Mathematical Certainty ; 7.2 Life in Non-Euclidean Geometry;7.3 What Kind of Knowledge is Geometry? ; 8. Looking For Geometry ; 8.1 Measuring the Geometry of Space? ; 8.2 The ''Geometry'' of Poincare''s Space ; 8.3 How to Disprove a Definition ; 8.4 Experiencing Space: 8.5 Where is Geometry? ; 9. What is Space? ; 9.1 Space=Matter ; 9.2 Relational Space ; 9.3 Absolute Space ; 9.4 Relational Space Redux ; 9.5 What Physics and Philosophy Can Teach Each Other ; 10. Time ; 10.1 Time vs. Space ; 10.2 Nowism ; 10.3 A Moving Now? ; 10.4 McTaggart''s Argument ; 10.5 Passing Time in a Block Universe ; 11. Time and Tralfamadore ; 11.1 The Mind''s Worldline ; 11.2 Experience of Space vs. Time ; 11.3 Another Arrow ; 11.4 Physics and the Philosophy of Perception ; 12. Time Travel ; 12.1 What is Time Travel? ; 12.2 Is Time Travel Possible? ; 12.3 The Problem with Time Travel ; 12.4 Possible and Impossible Time Travel ; 12.5 The Philosophy and Physics of Time Travel ; 13. Why Can''t I Stop my Younger Self from Time Traveling? ; 13.1 Physics Might Stop Me ; 13.2 ... and If Not, Logic Will ; 13.3 My Precise Physical State Stops Me ; 13.4 Living in a Physical Universe ; 14. Spacetime and the Theory of Relativity ; 14.1 Photons and Bullets ; 14.2 Convention ; 14.3 Relativity-When is Now? ; 14.4 Relativistic Spacetime ; 14.5 Relativity of Length ; 14.6 Relativity of Time ; 15. Time in Relativity ; 15.1 The Twins ; 15.2 General Relativity ; 15.3 Time vs. Space Yet Again ; 16. Hands and Mirrors ; 16.1 Is Handedness Intrinsic or Extrinsic? ; 16.2 The ''Fitting'' Account ; 16.3 Kant''s Argument against the Fitting Account ; 16.4 Looking Left and Right ; 16.5 Mirrors ; 16.6 Orientability ; 17. Identity ; 17.1 Particle Statistics ; 17.2 Schr:odinger''s Coun