🧩 Philosophy Jun 12, 2026 · Craig Callender

Thermodynamic Asymmetry in Time

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[Revised entry by Craig Callender on June 12, 2026.
Changes to: Main text, Bibliography]
The thermodynamic time asymmetry is one of the most salient and consequential features of the physical universe. Heat flows from hot to cold. The smell of coffee spreads throughout its available volume. Car engines convert fuel energy into work and thermal energy. And so on. The temporally reversed order of these processes never happen. The science of thermodynamics is able to capture these generalizations

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