CFA: 3rd Chilean Conference on the Philosophy of Physics

We are delighted to announce the Third Chilean Conference on the Philosophy of Physics. The conference will be hosted by the Philosophy Institute at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile.

It will be held in Santiago, between December 14 and 16, 2022.

Invited speakers: Elise Crull, Wayne Myrvold

We invite scholars to submit an abstract of 500-1000 words to phil.phys.chile.2022@gmail.com, before september 20. Notification of acceptance: october 1.

For any questions, please contact Professor Pablo Acuña: ptacuna@uc.cl / phil.phys.chile.2022@gmail.com

Website of the conference: https://philphyschile.wixsite.com/2022

Call for Registration: The Many-Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics

Research workshop of the Israeli Science Foundation.

Hosted by QuanTAU, Quantum Science and Technology Center
Tel-Aviv University, 18-24 October 2022.

A preliminary version of the program can be found here: https://www.mwi2022tau.com/program

Registration: Registration is open and ongoing through this form. Registration fee should be paid separately (full fee \ student fee). (Please note that this price is valid until September 15th, after which the price will increase by 50%.)

Proceedings: Participants are invited to contribute an article to an open-access peer-reviewed special issue of Quantum Reports (MDPI) dedicated to the Many Worlds Interpretation and its alternatives.

CFP: Theoretical Virtues and Non-Empirical Guides in Scientific Theory-Development

Submission deadline: July 11, 2022

Aarhus, Denmark

November 23, 2022 – November 24, 2022

Go to the conference’s page

As part of Establishing the Nordic Network for Philosophy of Physics, we will host a workshop on Theoretical Virtues and Non-Empirical Guides in Scientific Theory-Development.

Theoretical virtues are desirable features of scientific theories, and may include principles such as consistency, simplicity, unification, and consilience/coherence—not all of which are directly related to empirical evidence. These principles play various roles in scientific theory development, including as heuristic, exploratory guides in scientific discovery, as indicators of pursuit-worthiness, or means of confirmation. But there are also other non-empirical features used in these roles that are not typically classified as theoretical virtues, such as analogy and thought experiment.

CFP: Philosophia naturalis: Making sense of relations and realities

A session organized by the Institute for Studies in Pragmaticism (Texas Tech University) to be held at the Central Division APA Meeting in

Denver, 22-25 February 2023

The various recent approaches to quantum worlds appear to be reaching a consensus: that spacetime is quantized, relational, and emergent out of a fundamentally new, pre-geometric order that exists “before” and “below.” Conventional reality, then, emerges as an explicate order from more fundamental, relational pre-geometric and pre-quantum implicate order(s), which exist beyond conventional science and philosophy. This pre-geometric implicate order has the potential to answer the two most fundamental questions in all of the philosophia naturalis: what is the origin of spacetime and the fields within it, and ultimately, why is there something rather than nothing? Hence, the sub-Planckian order promises profound consequences, not just for foundational (meta)physics, but also for cosmic evolution in quantum cosmology and human knowledge of it.

Metaphysics Beyond Spacetime Conference

June 15-18 2022
University of Geneva, with the event taking place in Ovronnaz, Switzerland

With talks by:

CFR: History, Philosophy and Sociology of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics Conference

Call for Registration

Registration deadline: 1 June 2022

Event details: Bonn, Germany, 29-30 June 2022 with pre-event on 28 June at 16:15 (Nora Boyd on Laboratory Astrophysics)

Website & registration: https://www.lhc-epistemologie.uni-wuppertal.de/events/hps-cap.html

The Many-Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics: Current Status and Relation to Other Interpretations

Research workshop of the Israeli Science Foundation.

Hosted by QuanTAU, Quantum Science and Technology Center Tel-Aviv University

18-24 October 2022

https://www.mwi2022tau.com/

Submission deadline: June 18th

The MWI solves the measurement problem, avoids action at a distance and indeterminism and does not contradict empirical evidence. Why, then, it is not in the consensus? 

The workshop will  aim to promote the ongoing debate on the foundations of quantum mechanics by dealing with the major open questions regarding the MWI, together with objections and alternatives.

Submission includes a short abstract and an optional extended abstract/preprint/published paper. All submissions should be submitted through the submission form by June 18th, but please submit as early as possible and your submission will be favored. 

The format of the workshop is not fixed yet and will depend on submitted contributions, COVID-19 restrictions, etc. Please visit the workshop website for more details. For questions please contact mwiconference2022@gmail.com. 

New online lecture series in philosophy of science

Bas van Fraassen: Epistemological implications of Bell’s inequality

Online, 21 March 2022 at 7 pm CET

On March 21st, Bas van Fraassen will kick off a new lecture series on philosophy of science (very broadly construed). All information, including background readings and the Zoom link, will be posted here: https://www.philosophiederphysik.de/quarterly-lectures

The series is mainly directed at undergraduate students, but anyone interested is welcome to join. Also, students are welcome to suggest speakers for future events via seminar@philosophiederphysik.de.

Organizers: Oxana Shaya (Aachen), Niels Linnemann (Bremen/Rotman), and Kian Salimkhani (Cologne)

CFA: History, Philosophy and Sociology of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics Conference

Submission deadline: 21 March 2022

Event details: Bonn, Germany, 29-30 June 2022 with pre-event on 28 June at 16:15.

Website: https://www.lhc-epistemologie.uni-wuppertal.de/events/hps-cap.html

The DFG-funded research unit Epistemology of the LHC is organising a two-day conference on the history, philosophy and sociology of cosmology and astroparticle physics. This event follows up on the 2019 conference in Aachen on dark matter & modified gravity, a special journal issue on the same topic, and the 2021 online workshop on the philosophy of dark matter. The conference will take place on the 29^th and 30^th of June 2022 in Bonn, Germany. Philosophers, physicists, historians, sociologists and other interested scholars are invited to attend.

2nd CFA: ‘Cosmology Beyond Spacetime’ Summer Institute, 26 June – 1 July 2022

2nd Call for Applications:

International Summer Institute in Philosophy of Physics on the PHILOSOPHY OF COSMOLOGY and the PHILOSOPHY OF QUANTUM GRAVITY

Hosted by the University of Geneva-University of Illinois at Chicago Cosmology Beyond Spacetime project

Hotel Le Crêt, Morzine, France 

26 June – 2 July 2022

Further information, when available, at http://beyondspacetime.net/2022summerinstitute/.

In recent years, the philosophy of quantum gravity and the philosophy of cosmology have emerged as new fields in their own right, with several summer schools dedicated to each. However, they remain largely unconnected, even though their intersection promises new scientific insights of great significance to philosophical question and the advancement of physics. This Summer Institute proposes to address conceptual, metaphysical, and epistemological implications of big bang, black hole, and multiverse models in quantum gravity: the fundamental nature of space and time, especially the beginning of spacetime, ‘before’ time or ‘outside’ space; the multiverse; the nature of physical law; and how we might have knowledge of such things.

These are just some of the questions that we will discuss in this Summer Institute, which addresses graduate students and postdocs from philosophy of physics and related fields.

Faculty: