Humean time-reversal symmetry.

In this paper, we put forward an alternative interpretation of time-reversal symmetry in philosophy of physics: Humean time-reversal symmetry. According to it, time-reversal symmetry is understood as a heuristic, epistemic virtue of the best system, not as a property of the Humean mosaic. One of the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Synthese Vol. 202; no. 2; pp. 1 - 20
Main Authors: López, Cristian, Esfeld, Michael
Format: Article
Published: Springer Nature Aug2023
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Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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Summary:In this paper, we put forward an alternative interpretation of time-reversal symmetry in philosophy of physics: Humean time-reversal symmetry. According to it, time-reversal symmetry is understood as a heuristic, epistemic virtue of the best system, not as a property of the Humean mosaic. One of the consequences of this view is that one of the main arguments against a primitive direction of time is rendered harmless, which paves the way for primitivism about the direction of time.