Works by Lawrence Sklar
105 found
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- Physics and Chance: Philosophical Issues in the Foundations of Statistical Mechanics.Lawrence Sklar -1993 - New York: Cambridge University Press.Statistical mechanics is one of the crucial fundamental theories of physics, and in his new book Lawrence Sklar, one of the pre-eminent philosophers of physics, offers a comprehensive, non-technical introduction to that theory and to attempts to understand its foundational elements. Among the topics treated in detail are: probability and statistical explanation, the basic issues in both equilibrium and non-equilibrium statistical mechanics, the role of cosmology, the reduction of thermodynamics to statistical mechanics, and the alleged foundation of the very notion (...) of time asymmetry in the entropic asymmetry of systems in time. The book emphasises the interaction of scientific and philosophical modes of reasoning, and in this way will interest all philosophers of science as well as those in physics and chemistry concerned with philosophical questions. The book could also be read by an informed general reader interested in the foundations of modern science. (shrink)
- Space, Time, and Spacetime.Lawrence Sklar -1974 - University of California Press.In this book, Lawrence Sklar demonstrates the interdependence of science and philosophy by examining a number of crucial problems on the nature of space and ...
- (1 other version)Physics and Chance.Lawrence Sklar -1995 -British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 46 (1):145-149.Statistical mechanics is one of the crucial fundamental theories of physics, and in his new book Lawrence Sklar, one of the pre-eminent philosophers of physics, offers a comprehensive, non-technical introduction to that theory and to attempts to understand its foundational elements. Among the topics treated in detail are: probability and statistical explanation, the basic issues in both equilibrium and non-equilibrium statistical mechanics, the role of cosmology, the reduction of thermodynamics to statistical mechanics, and the alleged foundation of the very notion (...) of time asymmetry in the entropic asymmetry of systems in time. The book emphasises the interaction of scientific and philosophical modes of reasoning, and in this way will interest all philosophers of science as well as those in physics and chemistry concerned with philosophical questions. The book could also be read by an informed general reader interested in the foundations of modern science. (shrink)
- Types of inter-theoretic reduction.Lawrence Sklar -1967 -British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 18 (2):109-124.
- Methodological conservatism.Lawrence Sklar -1975 -Philosophical Review 84 (3):374-400.
- Do Unborn Hypotheses Have Rights?†.Lawrence Sklar -2017 -Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 62 (1):17-29.
- Theory and truth: philosophical critique within foundational science.Lawrence Sklar -2000 - New York: Oxford University Press.Skeptics have cast doubt on the idea that scientific theories give us a true picture of an objective world. Lawrence Sklar examines three kinds of skeptical arguments about scientific truth, and explores the important role they play within foundational science itself. Sklar demonstrates that these kinds of philosophical critique are employed within science, and reveals the clear difference between how they operate in a scientific context and more abstract philosophical contexts. The underlying theme of Theory and Truth is that science (...) and philosophy are essential to one another. Sklar advances the claim that one cannot understand the methods of science without a comprehension of philosophy, and one cannot fruitfully pursue philosophy of science without understanding fundamental science as well. (shrink)
- Philosophy and Spacetime Physics.Lawrence Sklar -1985 - University of California Press.Twelve essays explore the philosophy of science in general and the physical sciences in particular A common theme unites all twelve essays: In discussing the ...
- Philosophy of physics.Lawrence Sklar -1992 - Boulder: Westview Press.The study of the physical world had its origins in philosophy, and, two-and-one-half millennia later, the scientific advances of the twentieth century are bringing the two fields closer together again. So argues Lawrence Sklar in this brilliant new text on the philosophy of physics.Aimed at students of both disciplines, Philosophy of Physics is a broad overview of the problems of contemporary philosophy of physics that readers of all levels of sophistication should find accessible and engaging. Professor Sklar’s talent for clarity (...) and accuracy is on display throughout as he guides students through the key problems: the nature of space and time, the problems of probability and irreversibility in statistical mechanics, and, of course, the many notorious problems raised by quantum mechanics.Integrated by the theme of the interconnectedness of philosophy and science, and linked by many references to the history of both disciplines, Philosophy of Physics is always clear, while remaining faithful to the complexity and integrity of the issues. It will take its place as a classic text in a field of fundamental intellectual importance. (shrink)
- (1 other version)Creating Modern Probability: Its Mathematics, Physics and Philosophy in Historical Perspective.Lawrence Sklar &Jan von Plato -1994 -Journal of Philosophy 91 (11):622.
- Statistical explanation and ergodic theory.Lawrence Sklar -1973 -Philosophy of Science 40 (2):194-212.Some philosphers of science of an empiricist and pragmatist bent have proposed models of statistical explanation, but have then become sceptical of the adequacy of these models. It is argued that general considerations concerning the purpose of function of explanation in science which are usually appealed to by such philosophers show that their scepticism is not well taken; for such considerations provide much the same rationale for the search for statistical explanations, as these philosophers have characterized them, as they do (...) for lawlike explanations. But, it is further argued, a significant piece of what is frequently offered as an explanation of well known phenomena in statistical mechanics, fails to meet this general "pragmatic rationale" for statistical, or indeed any kind of, explanation. The question then arises whether the physicists have misconstrued the value of this piece of physical theorizing, ergodic theory, taking it to be explanatory when it is actually not; or whether, instead, the philosopher's account of just what is genuinely explanatory is too narrow. (shrink)
- The Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics: The Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics in Historical Perspective.Lawrence Sklar -1977 -Philosophy of Science 44 (2):332-332.
- Dappled theories in a uniform world.Lawrence Sklar -2003 -Philosophy of Science 70 (2):424-441.It has been argued, most trenchantly by Nancy Cartwright, that the diversity of the concepts and regularities we actually use to describe nature and predict and explain its behavior leaves us with no reason to believe that our foundational physical theories actually "apply" outside of delicately contrived systems within the laboratory. This paper argues that, diversity of method notwithstanding, there is indeed good reason to think that the foundational laws of physics are universal in their scope.
- Time, Reality, and Relativity.Lawrence Sklar -1981 - In R. Healey,Reduction, Time, and Relativity. Cambridge University Press.
- Saving the Noumena.Lawrence Sklar -1982 -Philosophical Topics 13 (1):89-110.
- Philosophy and the Foundations of Dynamics.Lawrence Sklar -2012 - Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Although now replaced by more modern theories, classical mechanics remains a core foundational element of physical theory. From its inception, the theory of dynamics has been riddled with conceptual issues and differing philosophical interpretations and throughout its long historical development, it has shown subtle conceptual refinement. The interpretive program for the theory has also shown deep evolutionary change over time. Lawrence Sklar discusses crucial issues in the central theory from which contemporary foundational theories are derived and shows how some core (...) issues have nevertheless remained deep puzzles despite the increasingly sophisticated understanding of the theory which has been acquired over time. His book will be of great interest to philosophers of science, philosophers in general and physicists concerned with foundational interpretive issues in their field. (shrink)
- Is probability a dispositional property?Lawrence Sklar -1970 -Journal of Philosophy 67 (11):355-366.
- In the wake of chaos: Unpredictable order in dynamical systems.Stephen H. Kellert &Lawrence Sklar -1997 -Philosophy of Science 64 (1):181.
- The reduction(?) Of thermodynamics to statistical mechanics.Lawrence Sklar -1999 -Philosophical Studies 95 (1-2):187 - 202.
- Up and down, left and right, past and future.Lawrence Sklar -1981 -Noûs 15 (2):111-129.
- I’d Love to Be a Naturalist—if Only I Knew What Naturalism Was.Lawrence Sklar -2010 -Philosophy of Science 77 (5):1121-1137.Naturalists tell us to rely on what science tells about the world and to eschew aprioristic philosophy. But foundational physics relies internally on modes of thinking that can only be called philosophical, and philosophical arguments rely upon what can only be called scientific inference. So what, then, could the naturalistic thesis really amount to?
- A Realist Philosophy of Science.Lawrence Sklar -1986 -Philosophical Review 95 (3):444.No categories
- Philosophy of statistical mechanics.Lawrence Sklar -2008 -Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
- (1 other version)How Free Are Initial Conditions?Lawrence Sklar -1990 -PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1990:551 - 564.Those who think of some aspects of the world as "physically necessary" usually think of this kind of necessity as being confined to the general law of nature, initial conditions being "contingent." Tachyon theory and general relativity provide independent but related reasons for thinking that some initial states are, however, "impossible." And statistical mechanics seems to lead us to conclude that some initial conditions are, if not impossible, "highly improbable." We are then, led from these aspects of physics to wonder (...) if initial conditions are always "freely specifiable" and in the domain of physical contingency. (shrink)
- The Elusive Object of Desire: In Pursuit of the Kinetic Equations and the Second Law.Lawrence Sklar -1986 -PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1986:209 - 225.Despite over one-hundred years of effort, the origin of temporal asymmetry in the physical world still eludes us. While much has been learned about the role played by fundamental instabilities in microdynamics, by the imperfect isolation of systems and by cosmological facts in the origin of the behavior described by kinetic theory and thermodynamics, important puzzles still remain which continue to make the origins of asymmetric thermal behavior out of dynamically time symmetric underlying laws mysterious to us.
- Incongruous counterparts, intrinsic features and the substantiviality of space.Lawrence Sklar -1974 -Journal of Philosophy 71 (9):277-290.
- Unfair to frequencies.Lawrence Sklar -1973 -Journal of Philosophy 70 (2):41-52.
- Physical Theory: Method and Interpretation.Lawrence Sklar (ed.) -2014 - New York, US: Oup Usa.In nine new essays, distinguished philosophers of science discuss outstanding issues in scientific methodology --especially that of the physical sciences-and address philosophical questions that arise in the exploration of the foundations of contemporary science.
- Absolute space and the metaphysics of theories.Lawrence Sklar -1972 -Noûs 6 (4):289-309.
- Explaining chaos.Lawrence Sklar -2001 -Philosophical Review 110 (2):289-290.Explaining Chaos provides both a succinct and accurate introduction to the physics and mathematics of chaotic dynamical systems along with a number of pertinent philosophical commentaries on the scientific results. The book provides the clearest and most sensible treatment of chaos theory from a philosophical perspective available in the literature.
- Naturalism and the Interpretation of Theories.Lawrence Sklar -2001 -Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association 75 (2):43 - 58.
- Inertia, gravitation and metaphysics.Lawrence Sklar -1976 -Philosophy of Science 43 (1):1-23.Several variant "Newtonian" theories of inertia and gravitation are described, and their scientific usefulness discussed. An examination of these theories is used to throw light on traditional epistemological and metaphysical questions about space and time. Finally these results are examined in the light of the changes induced by the transition from "Newtonian" to general relativistic spacetime.
- Idealization and Explanation: A Case Study from Statistical Mechanics.Lawrence Sklar -1993 -Midwest Studies in Philosophy 18 (1):258-270.
- Semantic analogy.Lawrence Sklar -1980 -Philosophical Studies 38 (3):217 - 234.
- Real quantities and their sensible measures.Lawrence Sklar -1990 - In Phillip Bricker & R. I. G. Hughes,Philosophical Perspectives on Newtonian Science. MIT Press. pp. 57--76.No categories
- What might be right about the causal theory of time.Lawrence Sklar -1977 -Synthese 35 (2):155 - 171.
- Spacetime and conventionalism.Lawrence Sklar -2004 -Philosophy of Science 71 (5):950-959.Salmon, following Reichenbach and others, maintained that distant simultaneity was conventional in a special relativistic world in a way in which this was not so in prerelativistic spacetime. This paper surveys and criticizes a number of proposals to unpack this claim. It goes on to argue that if the claim has validity, it rests upon differing facts about epistemic accessibility of temporal relations in the different spacetimes, and not directly upon any facts about differing causal structures in these worlds.
- Varieties of explanatory autonomy.Lawrence Sklar -unknownThis is the text of a talk given at the Robert and Sarah Boote Conference in Reductionism and Anti-Reductionism in Physics, 22-23 April, 2006, Center for Philosophy of Science University of Pittsburgh.
- Comments on Malament’s “ ”Time Travel’ in the Godel Universe‘.Lawrence Sklar -1984 -PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1984:106 - 110.
- Probability as a theoretical concept.Lawrence Sklar -1979 -Synthese 40 (3):409 - 414.
- Review: Q uantum Mechanics and Experience. [REVIEW]Lawrence Sklar -1996 -Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 56 (4):973-975.
- The falsifiability of geometric theories.Lawrence Sklar -1967 -Journal of Philosophy 64 (8):247-253.
- Probability and Confirmation.Lawrence Sklar -2000 - Routledge.First published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
- Thermodynamics, Statistical Mechanics and the Complexity of Reductions.Lawrence Sklar -1974 -PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1974:15 - 32.
- The content of science, the methodology of science and Hempel's models of explanation and confirmation.Lawrence Sklar -1999 -Philosophical Studies 94 (1-2):21-34.
- -2001.Daniel C. Dennett,Brian Skyrms &Lawrence Sklar -unknownPaul Valéry1 Valéry’s “Variation sur Descartes” excellently evokes the vanishing act that has haunted philosophy ever since Darwin overturned the Cartesian tradition. If my body is composed of nothing but a team of a few trillion robotic cells, mindlessly interacting to produce all the large-scale patterns that tradition would attribute to the nonmechanical workings of my mind, there seems to be nothing left over to be me. Lurking in Darwin’s shadow there is a bugbear: the incredible Disappearing Self.2 One of (...) Darwin’s earliest critics saw what was coming and could scarcely contain his outrage. (shrink)
- Rationality and truth.Mark Kaplan &Lawrence Sklar -1976 -Philosophical Studies 30 (3):197 - 201.
- Tracy Lupher.Mark Sainsbury,Cory Juhl,Nicholas Asher,Hans Halvorson,Lawrence Sklar &Jim Hankinson -2006 - In Borchert,Philosophy of Science. MacMillan. pp. 164-202.
- A gravidade e a curvatura do espaço-tempo.Lawrence Sklar -2006 -Critica.
- A interdependência entre filosofia e ciência.Lawrence Sklar -2003 -Critica.No categories
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David Bourget (Western Ontario)
David Chalmers (ANU, NYU)
Area Editors:
David Bourget
Gwen Bradford
Berit Brogaard
Margaret Cameron
David Chalmers
James Chase
Rafael De Clercq
Ezio Di Nucci
Esa Diaz-Leon
Barry Hallen
Hans Halvorson
Jonathan Ichikawa
Monte Johnson
Michelle Kosch
Øystein Linnebo
Paul Livingston
Brandon Look
Manolo Martínez
Matthew McGrath
Michiru Nagatsu
Susana Nuccetelli
Giuseppe Primiero
Jack Alan Reynolds
Darrell P. Rowbottom
Aleksandra Samonek
Constantine Sandis
Howard Sankey
Jonathan Schaffer
Thomas Senor
Daniel Star
Jussi Suikkanen
Aness Kim Webster
Other editors
Contact us
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