Physics meets philosophy at the Planck scale : contemporary theories in quantum gravity / edited by Craig Callender, Nick Huggett.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Callender, Craig, 1968-

Huggett, Nick.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Quantum gravity.

Physical Description:

x, 365 pages : illustrations ; 27 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2001.

Summary:

Was the first book to examine the exciting area of overlap between philosophy and quantum mechanics with chapters by leading experts from around the world.

Contents:

Introduction / Craig Callender and Nick Huggett

Part 1 - Theories of quantum gravity and their philosophical dimensions

Spacetime and the philosophical challange of quantum gravity / Jeremy Butterfield and Christopher Isham

Naive quantum gravity / Stephen Weinstein

Quantum spacetime : What do we know? / Carlo Rovelli

Part II - Strings

Reflections on the fate of spacetime / Edward Witten

A philosopher looks at string theory / Robert Weingard

Black holes, dumb holes, and entropy / William G. Unruh

Part III -Topological quantum field theory

Higher-dimensional algebra and Planck scale physics / John C. Baez

Part IV - Quantum gravity and the interpretation of general relativity

On general covariance and best matching / Julien B. Barbour

Pre-Socratic quantum gravity / Gorbon Belot and John Earman

The origin of the spacetime metric : Bell's 'Lorentzian pedagogy' and its significance in general relativity / Harvey R. Brown and Oliver Pooley

Part V - Quantum gravity and the interpretation of quantum mechanics

Quantum spacetime without observers : Onto logical clarity and the conceptual foundations of quantum gravity / Sheldon Goldstein and Stefan Teufel

On gravity's role in quantum state reduction / Roger Penrose

Why the quantum must yield to gravity / Joy Christian.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 339-356) and index.

ISBN:

052166280X

0521664454

OCLC:

45172783