Philosophy at CERN?

In an interview yesterday with The European, CERN’s director Rolf-Dieter Heuer has announced that CERN is planning seminars and workshops to address foundational issues at the intersection of physics with philosophy and theology. This is excellent news for philosophers of physics who are keen to find an audience among physicists and engage with them, and notable because CERN has generally shown little interest in these issues since Bell’s death. Very promising indeed!

GSSPP: Planning the future

We have now started to plan the future of the Geneva Summer School in the Philosophy of Physics (GSSPP), hoping that we will be able to have another edition in summer 2012. As always, the most tricky part is to find funding for the event! Of course, we could simply set the tuition fees at a level that would make sure all the expenses for the speakers and the reception (and the party!) are covered. But this would make the school unaffordable for many worthy participants–clearly an undesirable outcome. Furthermore, if the tuition fees are so high as to discourage potential participants from coming, then we wouldn’t even be able to fill the school, and would, again, be unable to cover our expenses!

GSSPP: update

After the huge success of the first two Geneva Summer Schools in the Philosophy of Physics (GSSPP) held in Arolla in 2008 (spacetime) and 2009 (foundations of quantum mechanics), many have wondered about the future of GSSPP. The good news is that Vincent Lam, Philipp Keller, and myself are still committed to organizing future events.

The bad news is that we haven’t managed to get funding in time to organize a meeting for 2010. But we are planning to do a school on the foundations of statistical mechanics and the direction of time in 2011.

So check back regularly for updates!