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The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 1995 46(2):219-234; doi:10.1093/bjps/46.2.219
© 1995 by British Society for the Philosophy of Science
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Temporal Asymmetry in Classical Mechanics

Keith Hutchison

Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Melbourne Parkville 3052, Australia

This paper argues against a standard view that all deterministic and conservative classical mechanical systems are time-reversible, by asking how the temporal evolution of a system modulates parametric imprecision (either ontological or epistemic). It notes that well-behaved systems (e.g. inertial motion) can possess a dynamics which is unstable enough to fail at reversing uncertainties—even though exact values are reliably reversed. A limited (but significant) source of irreversibility is thus displayed in classical mechanics, closely analogous the lack of predictability revealed by unstable chaotic systems.


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