Comments on Soul Physics: Get Started Reading Recent Classics on the Philoso...

Sklar's book on the philosophy of statistical mech...

2010-02-10T16:48:32.084-05:00

Sklar's book on the philosophy of statistical mechanics ("Physics and Chance") is absolutely essential for anyone considering work in that field. Liu and Emch's "The Logic of Thermo-Statistical Physics" may not be well-known enough to qualify for "classic" status, but it is excellent.

I don't think Penrose should be on there. Agree w...

2010-02-10T14:15:23.657-05:00

I don't think Penrose should be on there.

Agree with Jon about Price. Best philosophy of direction of time book out there, IMO.

Don't know if it's recent enough and no idea how it compares to Lange, but I remember Sklar's "Philosophy of Physics" as being a pretty decent introduction to the field.

Also: "Time's Arrow and Archimedes' Point: New Dir...

2010-02-10T13:40:33.936-05:00

Also: "Time's Arrow and Archimedes' Point: New Directions for the Physics of Time" by Huw Price.

I'd suggest "Every Thing Must Go: Metaphysics Natu...

2010-02-10T13:38:53.993-05:00

I'd suggest "Every Thing Must Go: Metaphysics Naturalized" if you're interested in the more wide-ranging implications. The authors argue (echoing a similar line that Maudlin takes in "Metaphysics in Physics") that contemporary metaphysics is too-often informed by pseudo-naturalism. Metaphysics is too often conducted, that is, by people who claim to be doing it in the name of real science, but who have only superficial understandings of out-dated scientific concepts. If we want to make any serious progress in metaphysics, they contend, we need to drop the Humean supervenience-motivated appeals to atomic theory and Newtonian mechanics and engage with cutting-edge physics on its own terms.

I'd suggest maybe Peter Smith's "Explaining Chaos"...

2010-02-10T13:32:09.488-05:00

I'd suggest maybe Peter Smith's "Explaining Chaos" if only because the above list seems rather short on Chaos Theory. (That said, this is not a failing of the list, but rather a consequence of the lack of philosophical writing on chaos theory)

And while it's not explicitly philosophy of physics, Gillies' Philosophical Theories of Probability is something everyone should be acquainted with.