The inverse spaceship paradox

In this article I propose what I call the inverse spaceship paradox. The article’s interest lies in the fact that, contrary to what appears to be an implicit agreement in the literature on indeterminism, it shows that coming from infinity can be a perfectly predictable and therefore deterministic process in a classical universe.     

A Look at the Staccato Run

This paper considers a recent criticism of the physical possibility of supertasks which involves Achilles’s staccato run. It is held that the criticism fails and that the underlying fallacy can be linked with interesting developments in the modern literature on physical supertasks.     

On The Dynamics Of Alper And Bridger

Bridger and Alper (1999) maintain that the nonphysical featuresof the supertasks described by Pérez Laraudogoitia (1996) involving a system containing an infinite number of particles may be avoided by introducing, in a specific way, Hilbert space in classical dynamics. I argue that it is possible to interpret their proposal in two ways, neither of which is acceptable for the purpose for which it was introduced.     

On Norton’s dome

Norton’s very simple case of indeterminism in classical mechanics has given rise to a literature critical of his result. I am interested here in posing a new objection different from the ones made to date. The first section of the paper expounds the essence of Norton’s model and my criticism of it. I then propose a specific modification in the absence of gravitational interaction. The final section takes into consideration a surprising consequence for classical mechanics from the new model introduced here.     

What the Tortoise Said to Achilles

Continuing the conversation between Achilles and the tortoise begun by Carroll, this paper proves that, in a supertask context, there are free actions (in general, contingent states of affairs) that can be predicted by means of purely logical reasons.     

Fluids,Molecules and Paradoxes of Infinity

Several paradoxes of infinity have recently featured in this journal involving gases distributed in a denumerable infinite series of compartments. I shall demonstrate in this paper that:

a) None of these new paradoxes applies where the gases comply with both Boyle’s law and Avogadro’s law. As several of these new paradoxes expressly require compliance with Boyle’s law, it is unclear, in principle, as to whether there is a plausible model of gas that is able to uphold them all.

b) Notwithstanding a), any of the above paradoxes (and their variations) can be reinstated by acknowledging (contrary to what is widely assumed in the literature) that there are two distinct, non-equivalent concepts of ideal gas. Indeed, the various infinity puzzles actually enable a distinction to be made between the two concepts (which is a particularly elegant way of doing so).

     

Indeterminism,classical gravitation and non-collision singularities

Until the present, the Newtonian theory of gravitation has only been studied in any detail through the usual, presupposed ontology of point particles. This paper shows that changing our ontology into one which makes use of continuous bodies (non-point particles) allows us to obtain in a simple way two important results relevant to the theory: (a) The Newtonian theory of gravitation is indeterministic in a way apparently unparalleled when non-point particle models of it are used. (b) In the Newtonian theory of gravitation it is possible to find non-collision singularities qualitatively different from the ones presented in point particle models.     

A Note on some New Infinity Puzzles

Philosophia - In this short note I argue that, using the type of configurations put forward in a recent paper by Laraudogoitia in this same journal, new paradoxes of infinity of a completely...