Fundamentality and Time's Arrow

Reference : Fundamentality and Time's Arrow


	Document type :	Scientific journals : Article
	Discipline(s) :	Arts & humanities : Philosophy & ethics
	To cite this reference:	http://hdl.handle.net/10993/34583

Title :	Fundamentality and Time's Arrow
Language :	English
Author, co-author :	Loew, Christian [University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Language and Literature, Humanities, Arts and Education (FLSHASE) > Identités, Politiques, Sociétés, Espaces (IPSE) >]
Publication date :	Jul-2018
Journal title :	Philosophy of Science
Publisher :	University of Chicago Press
Volume :	85
Issue/season :	3
Pages :	483-500
Peer reviewed :	Yes (verified by ORBi^lu)
Audience :	International
ISSN :	0031-8248
Keywords :	[en] Direction of Time ; Fundamentality ; Grounding ; Thermodynamics ; Statistical Mechanics ; Tim Maudlin ; Past Hypothesis
Abstract :	[en] The distribution of matter in our universe is strikingly time asymmetric. Most famously, the Second Law of Thermodynamics says that entropy tends to increase toward the future but not toward the past. But what explains this time-asymmetric distribution of matter? In this paper, I explore the idea that time itself has a direction by drawing from recent work on grounding and metaphysical fundamentality. I will argue that positing such a direction of time, in addition to time-asymmetric boundary conditions (such as the so-called "past hypothesis"), enables a better explanation of the thermodynamic asymmetry than is available otherwise.
Target :	Researchers
Permalink :	http://hdl.handle.net/10993/34583
DOI :	10.1086/697748
Other URL :	https://doi.org/10.1086/697748

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