Description du livre
This book is the first all-encompassing exploration of the role of demons in
philosophical and scientific thought experiments. In Part I, the author explains the importance of thought experiments in science and
philosophy. Part II considers Laplace’s Demon, whose claim is that the world is
completely deterministic. Part III introduces Maxwell’s Demon, who - by contrast - experiences a world that is probabilistic and indeterministic. Part IV explores Nietzsche’s thesis of the cyclic and eternal recurrence of events. In each case
a number of philosophical consequences regarding determinism and indeterminism, the arrows of time, the nature of the mind and
free will are said to follow from the Demons’s worldviews. The book investigates what these Demons - and others - can and cannot tell us about our world.