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The Dome: An Unexpectedly Simple Failure of Determinism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Abstract

Newton's equations of motion tell us that a mass at rest at the apex of a dome with the shape specified here can spontaneously move. It has been suggested that this indeterminism should be discounted since it draws on an incomplete rendering of Newtonian physics, or it is “unphysical,” or it employs illicit idealizations. I analyze and reject each of these reasons.

Type
The Vagaries of Determinism and Indeterminism
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

My thanks to my cosymposiasts, John Earman and David Malament; to Michael Dickson, Bernie Goldstein, Stephan Hartmann, Alexandre Korolev, and Dmitri Tymoczko; and to visiting fellows of the Center for Philosophy of Science: Boris Grozdanoff, Antigone Nounou, Hernan Pringe, and Stéphanie Ruphy.

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