Direction of Time (Library Reprint S.) - Hardcover

Reichenbach, Hans

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0520018397 ISBN 13: 9780520018396

Publisher: University of California Press, 1972

Synopsis

Internationally known for his work in the theory of probability, symbolic logic, analysis of space and time, and philosophical problems of quantum physics, Hans Reichenbach (1891-1953) was one of the twentieth century's most incisive philosophers of science. In this, his last book, first published in 1956, he brought all his previous research and insight to bear on the most intractable and intriguing problem in physics: the elusive nature of time. This far-sighted work of philosophy illuminates the metaphysical questions with which contemporary researchers in cosmology and particle physics must contend.Arguing as he did throughout his career that developments in scientific knowledge must influence philosophy, Reichenbach shows how completely the Kantian a prioriĀ and many of our most basic intuitions about the structure of space and timeĀ are undermined by twentieth-century physics. He shows how the philosophical understanding of time is necessary to understanding contemporary problems of cosmology.This new edition of The Direction of Time, published in the year of Reichenbach's centennial, includes an introduction by Hilary Putnam, one of Reichenbach's most eminent students, describing the metaphysical assumptions and arguments embedded in Reichenbach's philosophy, and their importance for the development of contemporary philosophy pf science.

About this title

About the Author

Hans Reichenbach was professor of philosophy at UCLA and one of the leading thinkers in the logical empiricist school of philosophy. Maria Reichenbach translated and edited many of her husband's works first written in German. Hilary Putnam, Professor of Philosophy at Harvard University, is author of Meaning and Moral Sciences (1978), and, most recently, Realism with a Human Face (1990).

Edition details

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Publication date: 1972
• ISBN 10: 0520018397
• ISBN 13: 9780520018396
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 291
• Editor: Reichenbach Maria