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.