Bangs, Crunches, Whimpers and Shrieks

This book is the first serious, book-length study of the philosophical implications of relativity. It explains the relevant technical issues of general relativity theory and discusses how these issues bear upon philosophical problems about the nature of space and time, causality and laws of nature. Features include an analysis of time travel, The Big Bang and the Horizon Problem, Eternal Recurrence and Cyclic Time amongst other much debated issues today which have been brought to light in the face of a series of theorems, due largely to Stephen Hawking and Roger Penrose. Written by a leading philosopher, this book provides an overview of the technical literature as well as analytical commentary on its philosophical significance.

ISBN 019509591X   DEWEY edition DC21 ISBN13 9780195095913 (What's this?)   Pages 268 Publisher Oxford University Press Inc   Volumes 1 Imprint Oxford University Press Inc   Weight (grammes) 514 Format Hardback   Published in New York Publication date 02 Nov 1995   Height (mm) 234 Non-book description xi257   Width (mm) 156 Library of Congress QC173.59.S   Spine width (mm) 24 DEWEY 530.11   Academic level Professional / Scholarly

1		Introducing Spacetime Singularities and Acausalities		3
2		Defining, Characterizing, and Proving the Existence of Spacetime Singularities		27
3		Cosmic Censorship		64
4		Supertasks		103
5		The Big Bang and the Horizon Problem		124
6		Time Travel		160
7		Eternal Recurrence, Cyclic Time, and All That		203
8		Afterword		223
		References		228
		Index		247

..".I enthusiastically recommend this important work to anyone, philosopher or scientist, interested in the foundations of spacetime. Not only does the book include discussions of fascinating topics previously neglected by philosophers, but it is also chock full of original arguments in both physics and philosophy."--The Philosophical Review"This book should provide students of general relativity with a useful companion to the texts of Hawking and Ellis, Joshi and Clarke; professionals will also be interested in the different perspective it offers on work in global structure, and in its emphasis on points which can sometimes be lost in the detailed study of the mathematical structures involved." --Mathematical Reviews"A worthwhile and recommended addition to collections on the philosophy of science."--Choice"It is greatly to be hoped that this book, by setting out and elucidating the main problems, will stimulate more work in this area, so important for the understandin

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