Time, The Physical Magnitude, Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 1987 Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science Series, Vol. 99

In an age characterized by impersonality and a fear of individuality this book is indeed unusual. It is personal, individualistic and idiosyncratic - a record of the scientific adventure of a single mind. Most scientific writing today is so depersonalized that it is impossible to recognize the man behind the work, even when one knows him. Costa de Beauregard's scientific career has focused on three domains - special relativity, statistics and irreversibility, and quantum mechanics. In Time, the Physical Magnitude he has provided a personal vade mecum to those problems, concepts, and ideas with which he has been so long preoccupied. Some years ago we were struck by a simple and profound observa­ tion of Mendel Sachs, the gist of which follows. Relativity is based on very simple ideas but, because it requires highly complicated mathe­ matics, people find it difficult. Quantum mechanics, on the other hand, derives from very complicated principles but, since its mathematics is straightforward, people feel they understand it. In some ways they are like the bourgeois gentilhomme of Moliere in that they speak quantum mechanics without knowing what it is. Costa de Beauregard recognizes the complexity of quantum mechanics. A great virtue of the book is that he does not hide or shy away from the complexity. He exposes it fully while presenting his ideas in a non-dogmatic way.

1 Generalities.- 1.1. Introductory Remarks.- 2 Lawlike Equivalence Between Time and Space.- 2.1. More Than Two Millennia of Euclidean Geometry.- 2.2. The Three Centuries of Newtonian Mechanics: Universal Time and Absolute Space.- 2.3. Three Centuries of Kinematical Optics.- 2.4. Today’s Nec Plus Ultra of Metrology and Chronometry: ‘Equivalence’ of Space and Time.- 2.5. Entering the Four-Dimensional Spacetime Paradigm.- 2.6. The Magic of Spacetime Geometry.- 3 Lawlike Time Symmetry and Factlike Irreversibility.- 3.1. Overview.- 3.2. Phenomenological Irreversibility.- 3.3. Retarded Causality as a Statistical Concept. Arrowless Microcausality.- 3.4. Irreversibility as a Cosmic Phenomenon.- 3.5. Lawlike Reversibility and Factlike Irreversibility in the Negentropy-Information Transition.- 4 Relativistic Quantum Mechanics and the Problem of Becoming.- 4.1. Overview.- 4.2. 1900-1925: The Quantum Springs Out, and Spreads.- 4.3. 1925—1927: The Dawn of Quantum Mechanics with a Shadow: Relativistic Covariance Lost.- 4.4. 1927–1949: From Quantum Mechanics to Quantum Field Theory: Relativistic Covariance Slowly Recovered.- 4.5. Parity Violations andCPT Invariance.- 4.6. Paradox and Paradigm: The Einstein— Podolsky—Rosen Correlations.- 4.7.S-Matrix, Lorentz-and-CPT Invariance, And the Einstein—Podolsky—Rosen Correlations.- 5 An Outsider’s View of General Relativity.- 5.1. On General Relativity.- 5.2. An Outsider’S Look at Cosmology, and Overall Conclusions.- Notes.- Added in Proof.- Index of Names.- Index of Subjects.