The Justification of Probability Measures in Statistical Mechanics

@article{citeulike:3020691, abstract = {According to a standard view of the second law of thermodynamics, our belief in the second law can be justified by pointing out that low-entropy macrostates are less probable than high-entropy macrostates, and then noting that a system in an improbable state will tend to evolve toward a more probable state. I would like to argue that this justification of the second law is unhelpful at best and wrong at worst, and will argue that certain puzzles sometimes associated with the second law are merely artifacts of this questionable justification.}, author = {Davey, Kevin }, citeulike-article-id = {3020691}, journal = {Philosophy of Science}, keywords = {philosophy, philsci, physics, probability, statmech}, month = {January}, pages = {28--44}, posted-at = {2008-07-19 09:27:08}, priority = {2}, title = {The Justification of Probability Measures in Statistical Mechanics}, url = {http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/587821}, volume = {75}, year = {2008} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:3020691 L3 - citeulike-article-id:3020691 TI - The Justification of Probability Measures in Statistical Mechanics JF - Philosophy of Science VL - 75 SP - 28 EP - 44 N2 - According to a standard view of the second law of thermodynamics, our belief in the second law can be justified by pointing out that low-entropy macrostates are less probable than high-entropy macrostates, and then noting that a system in an improbable state will tend to evolve toward a more probable state. I would like to argue that this justification of the second law is unhelpful at best and wrong at worst, and will argue that certain puzzles sometimes associated with the second law are merely artifacts of this questionable justification. KW - philosophy KW - philsci KW - physics KW - probability KW - statmech AU - Davey, Kevin PY - 2008/01// UR - http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/587821 ER -