Priority of spacetime geometry SupportiveArgument1 #108413 The authors of the paper cited below claim that it is possible to define a cosmological arrow of time in a way that does not need to be reduced to non-temporal considerations - that is an intrinsic feature of spacetime, and which therefore has conceptual priority over the entropic approach. |
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+Citations (1)
- CitationsAdd new citationList by: CiterankMapLink[1] The Arrow of Time in Cosmology (article)
Author: Castagnino, Mario and Lombardi, Olimpia and Lara, Luis Cited by: Peter Baldwin 4:45 AM 19 May 2011 GMT Citerank: (3) 103806The physics of timeIs our subjective sense that time has a direction from past to future reflected in impersonal physical processes and laws? Is it better - from the impersonal viewpoint - to look asymmetries in time rather than a direction (to the future) of time?8FFB597, 104014The cosmological arrowThe cosmological arrow of time refers to the direction of time in which the universe is expanding. Generally considered to be closely related to the thermodynamic arrow.959C6EF, 108412Entropy of universe problematicalThere are a number of difficulties providing a viable definition of the entropy of the universe as a whole, as distinct from an isolated sub-system.13EF597B URL:
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Excerpt / Summary "Nevertheless, these difficulties are not the main reason for denying the central role played by entropy in the problem of the arrow of time in cosmology: there is a conceptual argument for abandoning the traditional approach. Entropy, as defined by thermodynamics, is a phenomenological property: a given value of entropy is compatible with many different configurations of a system. The question is whether there is a more fundamental property of the universe which allows us to distinguish between both temporal senses. From our perspective, it is possible to address the problem of the arrow of time in cosmology in terms of the geometrical properties of the space-time, independently of thermodynamic arguments. In this sense, we follow Earman’s “Time Direction Heresy”, according to which the arrow of time, if it exists, is an intrinsic feature of space-time “which does not need and cannot be reduced to nontemporal features” (Earman, 1974, p.20). In other words, the geometrical approach has conceptual priority over the entropic approach, since the geometrical properties of the universe are more basic than its thermodynamic properties: the definition of entropy and the calculation of the entropy curve for the whole universe are possible only if the space-time has certain definite geometrical features. Therefore, to insist on entropic considerations for distinguishing between both temporal senses on the cosmological level can only be the result of the reductionistic attitude and its attempt of reducing temporal relations to non-temporal relations between events." |