TUDOMANYFILOZOFIA SZEMINARIUM, P. M u u r s e p p

ELTE TTK Tudomanytortenet es Tudomanyfilozofia Tanszek Budapest, Pazmany P. setany 1/A TUDOMANYFILOZOFIA SZEMINARIUM (http://hps.elte.hu/seminar) ________________________________________________ Marcius 19. 16:00 6. em. 6.54 P e e t e r M u u r s e p p The University of Mainor Tallinn, Estonia Chaos, Irreversibility and Indeterminism There is a debate going on concerning the nature of science of today that centres round theproblems of chaos, irreversibility and indeterminism. The debate has been provoked by theworks of Ilya Prigogine, who advocates a principal turn in science during the last decadesof XX-th century. The claims of Ilya Prigogine have been criticised by Jean Bricmont, whorefuses to recognise the novelty of the approach of I. Prigogine. It seems, however, that J.Bricmont has not hit the target with his criticism. Putting it somewhat roughly, the main reason of I. Bricmont's misfire seems to be his concentration on the problem of determinism,whereas the heart of the matter lies in irreversibility. Therefore, the aim of the talk is clarifying the issues of indeterminism and irreversibility in the light of the debate mentioned above. It isuseful to fulfil this purpose by addressing the nature of the different types of chaos,deterministic and quantum. Although the main source of the discussion is contemporary, Ineed to take a short look back at the ideas of Ludwig Boltzmann, whose works have clearlyinspired both of the debating parties. A szeminarium szervezoje: E. Szabo Laszlo -- Laszlo E. Szabo Department of Theoretical Physics Department of History and Philosophy of Science Eotvos University, Budapest H-1518 Budapest, Pf. 32, Hungary Phone/Fax: (36-1)372-2924 Home: (36-1) 200-7318 Mobil/SMS: (36) 20-366-1172 http://hps.elte.hu/~leszabo