[Australian paperback edition]

These pages provide an introduction to my book, Time's Arrow and Archimedes' Point, published by Oxford University Press, New York, in March, 1996. The Table of Contents and Chapter 1 are accessible here, as are the jacket blurb and comments, and the book's listing in OUP's on-line catalogues in New York and Oxford. There are also some reviews and on-line discussions of the book. Huw Price 13 January, 1997.

From the jacket:

• Why is the future so different from the past? Why does the past affect the future and not the other way around? What does quantum mechanics really tell us about the world? In this important and accessible book, Huw Price throws fascinating new light on these mysteries of modern physics, and connects them in a wholly original way.

   Price begins with the mystery of the arrow of time. Why, for example, does disorder always increase, as required by the second law of thermodynamics? Price shows that, for over a century, most physicists have thought about these problems the wrong way. Misled by the human perspective from within time, which distorts and exaggerates the differences between past and future, they have fallen victim to what Price calls the "double standard fallacy": proposed explanations of the difference between the past and the future turn out to rely on a difference which has been slipped in at the beginning, when the physicists themselves treat the past and future in different ways. To avoid this fallacy, Price argues, we need to overcome our natural tendency to think about the past and the future differently. We need to imagine a point outside time -- an Archimedean "view from nowhen" -- from which to observe time in an unbiased way.

  Offering a lively criticism of many major modern physicists, including Richard Feynman and Stephen Hawking, Price shows that this fallacy remains common in physics today -- for example, when contemporary cosmologists theorize about the eventual fate of the universe. The "big bang" theory normally assumes that the beginning and end of the universe will be very different. But if we are to avoid the double standard fallacy, we need to consider time symmetrically, and take seriously the possibility that the arrow of time may reverse when the universe recollapses into a "big crunch."

  Price then turns to the greatest mystery of modern physics, the meaning of quantum theory. He argues that in missing the Archimedean viewpoint, modern physics has missed a radical and attractive solution to many of the apparent paradoxes of quantum physics. Many consequences of quantum theory appear counterintuitive, such as Schrödinger's Cat, whose condition seems undetermined until observed, and Bell's Theorem, which suggests a spooky "nonlocality," where events happening simultaneously in different places seem to affect each other directly. Price shows that these paradoxes can be avoided by allowing that at the quantum level the future does, indeed, affect the past. This demystifies nonlocality, and supports Einstein's unpopular intuition that quantum theory describes an objective world, existing independently of human observers: the Cat is alive or dead, even when nobody looks. So interpreted, Price argues, quantum mechanics is simply the kind of theory we ought to have expected in microphysics -- from the symmetric standpoint.

  Time's Arrow and Archimedes' Point  presents an innovative and controversial view of time and contemporary physics. In this exciting book, Price urges physicists, philosophers, and anyone who has ever pondered the mysteries of time to look at the world from the fresh perspective of Archimedes' Point and gain a deeper understanding of ourselves, the universe around us, and our own place in time.

• 'This is the best philosophical book on time that I have read. It is beautifully clear, precise but non-technical, and, once I started reading it, I couldn't put it down.' -- Robert Weingard, Professor of Philosophy, Rutgers.

   'Huw Price, who become known as 'the philosopher who took on Stephen Hawking on the arrow of time' (Scientific American,  Oct. 1989), has now formulated his own lucid account of this fundamental aspect of time and the concept of causality. He presents it in a marvellously clear and picturesque manner that allows even the layman to see the point of each part of the problem, and to understand its importance for the whole. I am convinced that this book will become a milestone of interdisciplinary debate in its best and fertile sense.' -- H. D. Zeh, author of the Physical Basis of the Direction of Time.

  'Huw Price's Time's Arrow and Archimedes' Point  is a thoughtful (and thought-provoking) analysis of the time-symmetry problem of physics which is in many ways deeper and more illuminating than accounts to be found elsewhere.' -- Roger Penrose, Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics, University of Oxford and author of Shadows of the Mind  and The Emperor's New Mind.

  'Huw Price's book, Time's Arrow and Archimedes' Point  is an uncompromising study of temporal asymmetry from an atemporal point of view. The result is a sustained, careful, unfailingly lucid argument to some surprising conclusions.' -- Steven Savitt, The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science.

  'Huw Price is one of a handful of philosophers with a thorough grasp of the notorious arrow of time problem. .... In this challenging book, Price applies critical reasoning and penetrating insight to current theories of physics and philosophy that have bearing on this problem. Among the many ideas discussed here is the controversial claim that time arrow would reverse in a recollapsing universe.' -- Paul Davies, Professor of Natural Philosophy, The University of Adelaide, and author of About Time  and The Physics of Time Asymmetry.

  'Particularly illuminating in that Price shows how philosophers and physicists have failed to notice to temporal symmetries because of the influence of their own temporally asymmetric perspective. ... A real advance in the interpretation of quantum mechanics. ... Not only philosophers of science but also theoretical physicists should be excited by this lovely book.' -- J. J. C. Smart, Emeritus Professor, Australian National University.