Two Talks at the MCMP (10.&13. Feb) - Changed Rooms!

[Dardashti, Radin]

Speaker: Lev Vaidman (Tel Aviv)
Monday 10th Feb 2014
Location: Ludwigstr. 33 room 144
Time: 18:15 - 19:45

Title:  Sleeping Beauty in Quantumland

Abstract:
A recent philosophical controversy in the analysis of the probability 
puzzle about Sleeping Beauty is presented. The issue of probability in 
the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics is reviewed. It is 
argued that that the analysis of the puzzle in the framework of the 
many-worlds interpretation helps to solve the Sleeping Beauty puzzle.


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Speaker: Joseph Berkovitz (Toronto)
Thursday 13th Feb 2014
Location: Ludwigstr. 33 room 144
Time: 18:15 - 19:45

Title:  On Mathematical Explanations of Physical Facts

Abstract:
Modern physics is highly mathematical, and this may suggest that 
mathematics is bound to play some role in explaining the physical 
reality. Yet, there is an ongoing controversy about the prospects of 
mathematical explanations of physical facts and the nature of such 
explanations. A popular view has it that mathematics provides a rich and 
indispensable language for describing the physical reality but could not 
play any role in explaining physical facts. Even more prevalent is the 
view that physical facts are to be sharply distinguished from 
mathematical facts. Indeed, both sides of the debate seem to hold this 
view. Accordingly, the idea that mathematical facts could explain 
physical facts seems particularly puzzling: how could facts about 
abstract, non-physical entities possibly explain physical facts? In this 
paper, I challenge these common views. I argue that (1) in addition to 
its descriptive role, mathematics plays a constitutive role in modern 
physics: some general, fundamental features of the physical reality, as 
reflected by modern physics, are essentially mathematical; and that (2) 
this constitutive role is the source of mathematical explanations of 
physical facts. On the basis of this argument, I suggest an account of 
mathematical explanation of physical facts. I conclude by comparing this 
account to other existing accounts of mathematical explanations of 
physical facts.