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.Support Mindscape on Patreon.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.Web pagePhilPeople profileGoogle Scholar publicationsWikipediaAmazon author pageSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Barry Loewer, a Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers, returns to discuss the philosophy of science. He highlights the critical distinction between science and pseudoscience, exploring Karl Popper's falsification criteria. The conversation dives into the contentious nature of string theory and scientific realism, debating whether it's pseudoscience. Additionally, topics such as Marxism's philosophical impacts and the interplay between metaphysics and scientific inquiry are examined, prompting listeners to rethink the foundations of modern science.

David Albert and Barry Loewer discuss the Mentaculus, their joint project on probability, determinism, and more. They explore subjective and objective perspectives on probability, the relationship between microscopic and macroscopic descriptions of the world, time's arrows, the measurement problem in quantum mechanics, and the influence of evaluating counterfactuals on free will and agency.