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Full Description
Scientific and philosophical inquiry often assumes that systems can be studied in isolation, yet real-world systems are never truly closed. They constantly interact with their environment, exchanging energy, information, and matter. This openness challenges fundamental assumptions about determinism, causality, and emergence, raising profound questions about how we model, explain, and understand the world.
This book brings together leading philosophers and scientists to explore the implications of open systems across physics, metaphysics, and methodology. How do interactions shape the behaviour of physical systems? What are the consequences of idealizing real systems as closed? How does openness affect our understanding of fundamental theories, such as quantum mechanics and statistical physics? And what does it mean for the broader philosophical concepts of reduction, explanation, and emergence?
At the heart of this volume lies the recognition that open systems require a shift in perspective-one that acknowledges the limits of traditional approaches and embraces new ways of thinking about complex, dynamic systems. Through interdisciplinary contributions, the book offers fresh insights into topics such as non-unitary evolution in quantum mechanics, the role of decoherence in the quantum-to-classical transition, and the challenges of modeling open systems in scientific practice.
Written for scholars and students in philosophy and physics, as well as anyone interested in the foundations of science, Open Systems: Physics, Metaphysics, and Methodology invites readers to rethink fundamental concepts in light of the inherent openness of the systems that shape our world.
Contents
Michael E. Cuffaro and Stephan Hartmann: Introduction
I The Open Systems View
1: Michael E. Cuffaro and Stephan Hartmann: Quantum Theory is about Open Systems
2: Emily Adlam: The Temporally Open Systems View
3: Olimpia Lombardi: The Relative Nature of Open Quantum Systems
4: David Wallace: Quantum Systems Other than the Universe
5: Doreen Fraser and Adam Koberinski: Frameworks in Physics: Abstractness, Generality, and the Role of Metaphysics
II Concepts of Open and Closed Systems In and Beyond Physics
6: William L. Harper: Newtonian Research and the Open Systems View
7: Molly Kao: Blackbody Radiation: The Open and Closed Systems Views and Complementary Reasoning Strategies
8: Henrique Gomes, Simon Langenscheidt and Daniele Oriti: Boundaries, Frames, and the Issue of Physical Covariance
9: Luis C. Barbado and %Caslav Brukner: Relational Objectivity in the Presence of Finite Quantum Resources
10: James Ladyman and Karim P. Y. Thébault: Open Systems and Autonomy
11: George Ellis: Biological Emergence: A Key Exemplar of the Open Systems View
III The Physics and Metaphysics of Worlds and Universes
12: Jørn Kløvfjell Mjelva, Josh Quirke and Alastair Wilson: Open Systems as Metaphysically Fundamental: Some Questions
13: Sean Gryb and David Sloan: How Closed is Cosmology?
14: Eddy Keming Chen: Density Matrix Realism
15: Lev Vaidman: Conservation Laws in the Many-Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics
16: Gemma De les Coves: Quantum Theory: Ideals, Infinities, and Pluralities
17: Wayne C. Myrvold: Perspective Duality as a Physical Requirement
