The Direction of Time (Library Reprint) [Hardcover]

Hans Reichenbach (Author), Maria Reichenbach (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1991 | Series: Library Reprint

Distinguished physicist examines emotive significance of time, time order of mechanics, time direction of thermodynamics and microstatistics, time direction of macrostatistics, and time of quantum physics. Analytic methods of scientific philosophy in investigation of probability, quantum mechanics, theory of relativity, causality. 1971 edition.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

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). --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 291 pages
• Publisher: Univ of California Pr (June 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520018397
• ISBN-13: 978-0520018396
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,913,207 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Laymen Beware, July 25, 2000

By 

Matthew T. Haley "kryogenic" (Austin, TX United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Direction of Time (Dover Books on Physics) (Paperback)

If you didn't know, this book is hard. I am a first year engineering student, and I felt lost through most of it. I gather it was intended for full-fledged physicists, but I was intrigued to read it anyway because of a philosophical thread running through the work. But beware--get ready for some Immanuel Kant and Einstein in only the introduction. This book is as much about the physics of time as the philosophy concerning subjectivity of time. Even though I didn't understand a lot of the probability or almost any of the quantum mechanics math, I still got some pleasure out of some of the more bizzare conclusions of the book. Did you know that for an isolated system (one not interacting with any others), time can't be said to have any direction? Furthermore, time as we know it is just a statistic. Another interesting fact is that on the quantum mechanical level, there is no such thing as time! If these things intrigue you (and you know what a double Riemann sum is) go for this book. Otherwise, be very afraid...

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This is a great book, March 24, 2001

By 

Muzaffer Muctehitzade "hacibey" (Boston, Ma USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Direction of Time (Dover Books on Physics) (Paperback)

It is a beautiful but exterememly difficult book. It covers the concept of time and direction of time from the beginning up to current thinking. Author, being one of the founding fathers of philosophical quantum theory first introduces a good understanding of Thermodaynamics and Statiastical Physics and defines the order of events to lead into statistical definition of arrow of time. A lot of difficult concepts from Classsical Statistical Physics, Probability Theory, Relativity and Mathematical Logic as well as a good understanding of Quantum Physics is assumed to be in the bag of the reader, after all this book is not a Popular Science book. Although the author claims that knowledge of derivations of the formulas used are not critical to understand this study yet time to time the language and logic becames exteremely difficult. This is a must read book in this subject, may be many times or time and time over after increasing the understanding in other subjects that only tools in this book.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Direction of Time, May 30, 2007

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Matt Simkins - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Direction of Time (Dover Books on Physics) (Paperback)

I can't believe that everyone didn't rate this with 5 stars!

I had to write this because this was one of those really great books that changed my understanding of something that seems so basic, so obvious, time.

Well well worth the 5 bucks.