The Irreversibility Problem: A Two-Level Interteorical Relation

  • Olimpia Lombardi
    CONICET-Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina olimpiafilo[at]gmail.com
  • Juan Camilo Martínez González
    CONICET-Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to shed new light on the problem of irreversibility by pointing out that, in the discussion about this matter, a relevant fact has not been sufficiently taken into account: the relationship between thermodynamics and mechanics involves a theoretical relation of two levels: an intra-theoretical level and an inter-theoretical level. We will try to highlight the two necessary steps to establish the link between thermodynamic irreversibility and mechanical reversibility. The first step attempts to explain the intra-theoretical relationship between macro-irreversibility and micro-reversibility in the mechanical framework. The second step intends to state the inter-theoretical relationship between the thermodynamic irreversibility expressed by the second law of thermodynamics and the macro-irreversibility obtained in the first step. Finally, the possible interpretations of these two steps from different philosophical positions will be discussed.
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Lombardi, O., & Martínez González, J. C. (2018). The Irreversibility Problem: A Two-Level Interteorical Relation. ArtefaCToS. Revista De Estudios Sobre La Ciencia Y La tecnología, 7(1), 29–50. https://doi.org/10.14201/artefactos2018712950

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Author Biographies

Olimpia Lombardi

,
CONICET-Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina
Ingeniera en Electrónica, Licenciada y Doctora en Filosofía, los tres títulos por la Universidad de Buenos Aires. Investigadora Principal de la Carrera de Investigador Científico y Tecnológico del Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET). Investigadora del Instituto de Filosofía de la Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Buenos Aires. Académica de la Academie Internationale de Philosophie des Sciences. Miembro del Foundational Questions Institute. Directora del Grupo de Investigación en Filosofía de las Ciencias Particulares de la Universidad de Buenos Aires. Estancias invitadas en la Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, la University of Texas at Austin, la Universidad de Valladolid y la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Directora de diversos investigadores de CONICET y de numerosas tesis doctorales, seis de ellas ya defendidas. Actuación internacional como directora y como jurado de tesis doctorales. Evaluación de proyectos de investigación para la National Science Foundation de USA, la Austrian Science Fund, la Czech Science Foundation, la Research Foundation Flanders de Bélgica, la National & Kapodistrian University of Athens, la University of Leuven de Bélgica, la Comisión Nacional de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica de Chile, la Comisión Sectorial de Investigación Científica de Uruguay y el Instituto de Investigaciones Filosóficas de la UNAM. Actúa habitualmente como árbitro para revistas como Philosophy of Science, The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, Proceedings of the Royal Society A, Synthese, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science), Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, European Journal for Philosophy of Science, Foundations of Physics, Foundations of Chemistry, Foundations of Science, International Journal of Quantum Foundations, Hyle-International Journal for Philosophy of Chemistry, European Journal of Chemistry, Physica A, Current Physical Chemistry, International Journal of Theoretical Physics, Minds and Machines, Entropy, Chemistry-A European Journal, Information, Physics Essays, entre muchas otras. Autora o coautora de cinco libros, y coeditora de tres en editoriales internacionales, dos de ellos en Cambridge University Press. Autora de más de 180 artículos, muchos de ellos en revistas como Philosophy of Science, Synthese, International Studies in the Philosophy of Science, Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, Foundations of Chemistry, Foundations of Physics, Foundations of Science, Physical Review A, Journal of Physics A, International Journal of Theoretical Physics, Classical and Quantum Gravity, Chaos, Solitons and Fractals, Journal of Chemical Education, Science & Education, entre otras, así como en libros de editoriales internacionales del Reino Unido, Estados Unidos, Países Bajos, España, México, Brasil, entre otros. Temas de investigación: fundamentos de la mecánica estadística, problemas de la irreversibilidad, de la flecha del tiempo y del determinismo, teoría de la información clásica y cuántica, interpretación de la física cuántica, decoherencia cuántica, y relación entre química y física.

Juan Camilo Martínez González

,
CONICET-Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina
Licenciado en Química, Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas, Bogotá. Master y Doctor en Epistemología e Historia de la Ciencia, ambos títulos por la Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero, Buenos Aires. Becario Posdoctoral del Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET). Estancia como investigador y profesor invitado (Summer lecturer). Proyecto “Der Erkenntnistheoretische Status der Elektronegativität”. Coburg University of Applied Sciences, Alemania. Colaborador docente del curso de postgrado “Una introducción a la filosofía de la química”. Programa de Actualización en Filosofía de las Ciencias Naturales. Universidad Nacional de la Plata, Argentina. Secretario General de la International Society for the Philosophy of Science. Artículos publicados en las revistas Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics (Elsevier), Foundations of Chemistry (Springer), Theoria (San Sebastián), Crítica (México), Scientiae Studia (Sao Paulo), entre otras. Expositor en más de 30 encuentros académicos, la mayoría internacionales, entre los que se destacan el Summer Symposium of the International Society for the Philosophy of Chemistry en sus últimas siete ediciones, y el Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association en sus últimas dos ediciones. Miembro del Grupo de Investigación en Filosofía de las Ciencias Particulares de la Universidad de Buenos Aires, dirigido por la Dra. Olimpia Lombardi. Durante los últimos años, participante en seis proyectos de investigación en Buenos Aires, Argentina, y en Coburg, Alemania. Temas de investigación: filosofía de la química, en especial, fundamentos de la química cuántica.
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