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Entropy 2012, 14(2), 344-369; doi:10.3390/e14020344

Article

Interventionism in Statistical Mechanics

Stephen Leeds

Department of Philosophy, University of Wisconsin, Curtin Hall, 3243 N. Downer Avenue, Milwaukee, WI 53211, USA

Received: 13 January 2012; in revised form: 9 February 2012 / Accepted: 9 February 2012 / Published: 17 February 2012

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Arrow of Time)

Download PDF Full-Text [135 KB, uploaded 17 February 2012 09:29 CET]

Abstract: I defend the idea that the fact that no system is entirely isolated (“Interventionism”) can be used to explain the successful use of the microcanonical distribution in statistical mechanics. The argument turns on claims about what is needed for an adequate explanation of this fact: I argue in particular that various competing explanations do not meet reasonable conditions of adequacy, and that the most striking lacuna in Interventionism—its failure to explain the “arrow of time”—is no real defect.

Keywords: interventionism; Albert; arrow of time

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