Professor David Z. Albert will give the Rudolf Carnap Lecture in philosophy of physics at the University of Haifa. The event will take place at The Dr. Hecht Arts Center. Reception will start at 05:30 PM, level 0, balcony. The lecture will start at 07:00 PM, Room 207 (all times are Israel Standard time). more info...
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. more info...
Philosophy of Logic, Mathematics, and Physics (LMP) Graduate Conference
The 21st annual Philosophy of Logic, Mathematics, and Physics Graduate Conference will take place on June 23-24, 2022. We are pleased to announce that Craig Callender (University of California, San Diego) will be giving the keynote address.
Call for Papers:
Graduate students who have not yet defended their PhD thesis are invited to submit papers on any topic in philosophy of logic, philosophy of mathematics, and philosophy of physics. Papers in philosophy of physics will be considered for the Annual Clifton Memorial book prize. The contest will be adjudicated by philosophy of physics faculty members at Western. Submission Guidelines:
The maximum paper length is 5,000 words, including footnotes and appendices (but not references). If the paper includes tables, figures, or equations, an appropriate number of words should be subtracted from the limit. Papers are to be prepared for anonymous review, and should be accompanied by an abstract (no longer than 300 words). Co-authored papers are not eligible for
submission. Deadline: Papers should be submitted via EasyChair by February 18, 2022 at https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=lmp2022.
Authors of accepted papers will be limited to 30-35 minutes for presentation, followed by a 20-minute period of discussion. The Annual Philosophy of Physics Conference will also take place sometime in June.
Exploration of issues arising where at least two of the three fundamental frameworks of physics intersect, inspired by the irenic spirit of Jeremy Butterfield. more info...
Causation is arguably one of the most controversial and persistent topics in the philosophy of the life sciences. Some (e.g. Reutlinger 2013; Anjum and Mumford 2018) have tried to develop monistic theories of causation, while others (e.g. Woodward 2010; Joffe 2013) maintain that causation in the life sciences is pluralist. It has been accepted by many (e.g. Mayr 1961; Dickins and Barton 2013) that there is a clear distinction between proximate causation and ultimate causation in evolutionary biology, whereas recently some (e.g. Francis 1990; Laland et al. 2011; Haig 2013) are highly sceptical. The significance of the notion of causation in biology has also been debated (Darden 2013). The conference aims to examine the issues relate to causation in the life sciences. The questions to be address include but are not limited to:
What is the best approach to causation in the life sciences?
Which better captures the concept of causation in the life sciences: causal pluralism or causal monism?
Is the concept of causation in the life sciences special in any sense?
Is the concept of causation in the life sciences reducible to that in the physical sciences?
Is the concept of causation in the life sciences teleological?
Is the distinction between proximate causation and ultimate causation tenable?
*For more information, please click here.
**The conference is part of the BA/Levehulme-funded project ‘The Metaphysical Foundations of Evidential Pluralism’ (2020-2022).
Causation is arguably one of the most controversial and persistent topics in the philosophy of the life sciences. Some (e.g. Reutlinger 2013; Anjum and Mumford 2018) have tried to develop monistic theories of causation, while others (e.g. Woodward 2010; Joffe 2013) maintain that causation in the life sciences is pluralist. It has been accepted by many (e.g. Mayr 1961; Dickins and Barton 2013) that there is a clear distinction between proximate causation and ultimate causation in evolutionary biology, whereas recently some (e.g. Francis 1990; Laland et al. 2011; Haig 2013) are highly sceptical. The significance of the notion of causation in biology has also been debated (Darden 2013). The conference aims to examine the issues relate to causation in the life sciences. The questions to be address include but are not limited to:
What is the best approach to causation in the life sciences?
Which better captures the concept of causation in the life sciences: causal pluralism or causal monism?
Is the concept of causation in the life sciences special in any sense?
Is the concept of causation in the life sciences reducible to that in the physical sciences?
Is the concept of causation in the life sciences teleological?
Is the distinction between proximate causation and ultimate causation tenable?
*For more information, please click here.
**The conference is part of the BA/Levehulme-funded project ‘The Metaphysical Foundations of Evidential Pluralism’ (2020-2022). more info...
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 29th and 30th of June 2022 in Bonn, Germany. Philosophers, physicists, historians, sociologists and other interested scholars are invited to attend.
Over the past few decades, cosmology, astronomy and particle physics have developed in different directions and at the same time become intertwined in an increasingly complex way, i.e., in terms of communities, theories, models, experiments, constraints, conferences and journals. Prime examples at the intersection of two or all three of these fields are the search for dark matter, cosmic rays, and neutrino physics. In recent years, various humanities—in particular the trio of history, philosophy & sociology (HPS)—have paid increasing attention to cosmology, astronomy and particle physics (CAP). It is the aim of this HPS-CAP conference to explore the history, philosophy and sociology of the intersection of CAP, as well as the interactions between history, philosophy & sociology of CAP. Research topics include but are not limited to the following:
The history of the formation of and interaction between the scientific disciplines
Cosmology, astronomy, particle physics & the scientific realism debate
Communities across CAP
Epistemology of experiments, simulation and observation
The interplay between constraints from cosmology, astronomy and particle physics
Cosmology and astronomy as historical sciences
Guiding principles within CAP (cosmological principle, anthropic principle, unification, …)
Dark matter, neutrinos and cosmic rays
Searches for “theories of everything”
Physics of scales (renormalization group methods, multi-scale modeling, inter-theory relationships, emergence and reduction)
The relationship between the humanities and CAP
See website for further information: https://www.lhc-epistemologie.uni-wuppertal.de/events/hps-cap.html
