scholarly journals New Difficulties for the Past Hypothesis

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean Gryb
Keyword(s):  
The Past ◽  
Synthese ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 162 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-165
Author(s):  
Peter Mark Ainsworth

2005 ◽  
Vol 72 (5) ◽  
pp. 739-750 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mathias Frisch
Keyword(s):  
The Past ◽  

Synthese ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Athamos Stradis

AbstractWhy do we have records of the past and not the future? Entropic explanations for this ‘record asymmetry’ have been popular ever since Boltzmann. Foremost amongst these is Albert and Loewer’s account, which explains the record asymmetry using a low-entropy initial macrostate (the ‘Past Hypothesis’) plus an initial probability distribution. However, the details of how this initial state underpins the record asymmetry are not fully specified. In this paper I attempt to plug this explanatory gap in two steps. First, I suggest the record asymmetry is more immediately explained by the ‘fork asymmetry’, which their picture omits. Second, by relating the fork asymmetry to an initial state that’s metaphysically similar to theirs, I clarify how this ultimately underpins the record asymmetry.


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