Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T10:17:11.077Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Laws and Initial Conditions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Mathias Frisch
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

I discuss two case studies from classical electrodynamics challenging the distinction between laws that delineate physically possible words and initial conditions. First, for many reasonable initial conditions there exist no global solutions to the Maxwell-Lorentz equations for continuous charge distributions. Second, in deriving an equation of motion for a charged point particle one needs to invoke an asymptotic condition that seems to express a physically contingent fact even though it is mathematically necessary for the derivation.

Type
Laws, Possibility, and the New Instrumentalism
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 71 , Issue 5: Proceedings of the 2002 Biennial Meeting of The Philosophy of Science Association. Part II: Symposia Papers , December 2004 , pp. 696 - 706
Copyright
Copyright © 2004 by the Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Frisch, Mathias (2005), Inconsistency, Asymmetry and Non-locality: Philosophical Issues in Classical Electrodynamics. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parrott, Stephen (1987), Relativistic Electrodynamics and Differential Geometry. New York: Springer-Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rohrlich, Fritz (1990), Classical Charged Particles. Reading, MA: Perseus Books.Google Scholar
Sklar, Lawrence (1991), “How Free Are Initial Conditions?” in Fine, Arthur, Forbes, Micky, and Wessels, Linda (eds.), PSA 1990, Vol. 2. East Lansing, MI: Philosophy of Science Association, 551–564.Google Scholar