What Is Probability?

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The fundamental laws could be indeterministic, even classically. Probability isn't like a fundamental feature in the world as an extra thing. What it is is a way that we've introduced, in physics and science, to provide good descriptions of a lot of information. The concept of law was invented by Descartes and his friends in the middle of the 17th century in Paris.

The founders of statistical mechanics in the 19th century faced an uphill battle to convince their fellow physicists that the laws of thermodynamics could be derived from the random motions of microscopic atoms. This insight turns out to be even more important than they realized: the emergence of patterns characterizing our macroscopic world relies crucially on the increase of entropy over time. Barry Loewer has (in collaboration with David Albert) been developing a theory of the Mentaculus — the probability map of the world — that connects microscopic physics to time, causation, and other familiar features of our experience.

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Barry Loewer received his Ph.D. in philosophy from Stanford University. He is currently distinguished professor of philosophy at Rutgers University. His research focuses on the foundations of physics and the metaphysics of laws and chance.

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