Typicality and the approach to equilibrium in Boltzmannian statistical mechanics

Frigg, Roman ORCID: 0000-0003-0812-0907 (2009) Typicality and the approach to equilibrium in Boltzmannian statistical mechanics. Philosophy of Science, 76 (5). pp. 997-1008. ISSN 0270-8647

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Abstract

An important contemporary version of Boltzmannian statistical mechanics explains the approach to equilibrium in terms of typicality. The problem with this approach is that it comes in different versions, which are, however, not recognized as such and not clearly distinguished. This article identifies three different versions of typicality‐based explanations of thermodynamic‐like behavior and evaluates their respective successes. The conclusion is that the first two are unsuccessful because they fail to take the system's dynamics into account. The third, however, is promising. I give a precise formulation of the proposal and present an argument in support of its central contention.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	http://journal.philsci.org/
Additional Information:	© 2010 University of Chicago Press
Divisions:	Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method
Subjects:	Q Science > QC Physics
Date Deposited:	21 Mar 2010 11:20
Last Modified:	15 Oct 2024 19:12
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/27469

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