The Thought Experiment of Maxwell’s Demon and the Origin of Irreversibility

Journal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie 39 (1):69-84 (2008)
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Abstract

The problem of the irreversibility's origin in thermodynamic processes occupies a distinguished place among many and lasting attempts by researchers to derive irreversibility from molecular-mechanical principles. However, this problem is still open and no universally accepted solution may be given during any course. In this paper, I shall try to show that the examining of Maxwell's demon thought experiment may provide insight into the difficulties that emerge, looking for this origin because: it is connected with the notion of irreversibility, and one of its functions is that of the "reversibility objection." In order to illustrate this point, I study Boltzmann's approach to the problem of a molecular-mechanical interpretation of irreversibility and I show that an auxiliary assumption is responsible for producing irreversibility. But this result is accordant with the predictions of Maxwell's demon thought experiment: the assumptions of this kind are not dictated by molecular-mechanical principles but are separate input in the model-systems used.

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References found in this work

Bluff Your Way in the Second Law of Thermodynamics.Jos Uffink - 2001 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 32 (3):305-394.
The Origins of Time-Asymmetry in Thermodynamics: The Minus First Law.Harvey R. Brown & Jos Uffink - 2001 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 32 (4):525-538.

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