Between Being and Becoming: a meta-theoretical approach to irreversibility

Abstract

The relationship between reversible-dynamical and irreversible-thermodynamic descriptions is analyzed from a meta-theoretical point of view. A network of inter-theoretical relations is drawn by means of asymptotic relations and complementarity. It is argued that the "paradox" between micro-reversibility and macro-irreversibility can be overcome by assuming a meta-complementarity relation existing between different levels of physical description, preserving a realist conception.