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The Time-Reversal Invariance of Fundamental Laws

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The Demons of Science
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Abstract

The time-reversal invariance of fundamental laws is one of the basic arguments not only for determinism, but also in favour of the afore-mentioned Block universe. The fundamental laws make no distinction between past, present and future and hence do not give rise to an arrow of time. It is an essential feature of many fundamental laws that they are time-reversal invariant.

So if the laws of Nature are indifferent as to the doing and undoing of an event, they must be indifferent as to a direction of time from past to future.

Eddington, The Nature of the Physical World (1932: 66)

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Correspondence to Friedel Weinert .

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Weinert, F. (2016). The Time-Reversal Invariance of Fundamental Laws. In: The Demons of Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31708-3_10

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