Abstract
THE support given by Profs. Hill and Grünbaum in their interesting communication is very encouraging. The problem before us—before these two authors as well as before myself—is the clarification of the notion of a ‘causally irreversible physical process’; or more precisely, of a process that is (a) ‘theoretically reversible’, in the sense that physical theory allows us to specify conditions which would reverse the process, and at the same time (b) ‘causally irreversible’, in the sense that it is causally impossible to realize the required conditions. Everything depends here upon making clear what we mean by saying that it is ‘causally impossible to realize certain conditions’.
Similar content being viewed by others
Article PDF
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
POPPER, K. Irreversible Processes in Physical Theory. Nature 179, 1297 (1957). https://doi.org/10.1038/1791297a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1791297a0
This article is cited by
-
Hot and Heavy Matters in the Foundations of Statistical Mechanics
Foundations of Physics (2011)
-
Did nonlinear irreversible thermodynamics revolutionize the classical time conception of physics?
Foundations of Physics (1984)
-
The flow of time
Synthese (1972)
-
Irreversible Processes in Physical Theory
Nature (1958)
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.