Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T04:19:01.756Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Reduction of Thermodynamics: A Few Problems

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Sang Wook Yi
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Lawrence Sklar in his book, Physics and Chance (1993), proposes a sophisticated account of reduction of thermodynamics (TD) by statistical mechanics (SM). I argue that Sklar's analysis of the alleged reduction of TD by SM is problematic in several respects. I consider a few counterexamples to show that none of what Sklar takes to be the central features of successful reduction in science (unification and identification) holds in the case of TD and SM. I suggest the broader conclusion that a more useful way of understanding the relationship between TD and SM is as collaboration and competition among alternative methodologies rather than reduction of one theory to another.

Type
Reduction and Structure of Theories
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 70 , Issue 5: Proceedings of the 2002 Biennial Meeting of The Philosophy of Science Association. Part I: Contributed Papers , December 2003 , pp. 1028 - 1038
Copyright
Copyright © 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.)

Footnotes

‡

I wish to thank Craig Callender, Nancy Cartwright, Jordi Cat, Hasok Chang, and Paul Teller for their helpful comments.

References

Chang, Hasok, and Yi, Sang Wook (2002), “Measuring the Absolute: William Thomson and Temperature”,Measurement in Physics and Economics Discussion Paper Series 26/02 CPNSS,LSE.Google Scholar
Griffiths, R. (1972), “Rigorous Results and Theorems”, in Domb, C. (ed.), Phase Transitions and Critical Phenomena. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Hoddeson, Lillian, et al. (1992), “Collective Phenomena”, in Hoddeson, Lillian, Braun, Ernest, Teichmann, Jürgen, and Weart, Spencer (eds.), Out of the Crystal Maze. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 489–616.Google Scholar
Kemeny, J., and Oppenheim, Paul (1956), “On Reduction”, On Reduction 7:10–19.Google Scholar
Kondepudi, Dilip, and Prigogine, Ilya (1998), Modern Thermodynamics: From Heat Engines to Dissipative Structure, Chichester: Wiley.Google Scholar
Nagel, Ernst (1961), The Structure of Science, New York: Hackett.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Putnam, Hilary (1975), “The Nature of Mental States”, in Putnam, Hilary, Mind, Language, and Reality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 429–440.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sklar, Lawrence (1993), Physics and Chance: Philosophical Issues in the Foundations of Statistical Mechanics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ter Harr, D., and Wergeland, H. (1966), Elements of Thermodynamics. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.Google Scholar
Toda, M., Kibo, R., and Saitô, N. (1983), Statistical Physics I: Equilibrium Statistical Mechanics. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yang, C. N., and Lee, T. D. (1952), “Theory of Phase Transitions”, Theory of Phase Transitions 87:404–411.Google Scholar
Yi, Sang Wook (2000), How to Model Macroscopic Worlds: Towards the Philosophy of Condensed Matter Physics. Ph.D. thesis. University of London.Google Scholar