April 2020 - philphysmunich

CfP: Synthese Topical Collection: "Simplicity out of Complexity? Physics and the Aims of Science"
by Florian J Boge Sept. 15, 2020

Sept. 15, 2020

Call for Papers Synthese Topical Collection on Simplicity out of Complexity? Physics and the Aims of Science Deadline: 31 July 2020 Guest Editors Florian J. Boge (University of Wuppertal) Paul Grünke (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology) Martin King (University of Bonn) Miguel Ángel Carretero Sahuquillo (University of Wuppertal) * Description The world we live in is notoriously complex: there is an outright zoo of material particles, a vast variety of different species, a whole plethora of stars and galaxies, and so forth. Yet many scientific achievements, such as the Standard Model of particle physics or Darwin’s theory of natural selection, allow us to manage part of this complexity by means of a simple set of laws or general rules. Simplicityhas often been assumed to be an epistemic ideal, most clearly exemplified in physics, with its trend towards encompassing theories that feature only a small number of fundamental laws, capable of explaining a large number of diverse phenomena. This view of science, with physics at the center stage, has arguably provided the dominant narrative in mainstream philosophy of science throughout the 20thcentury. Yet many questions arise when one zooms in on the details. For instance: in what sense can the laws of physics be said to be simple, when concrete computations based on them are tedious or even impossible? How do notions of simplicity differ across the sciences, and what are their commonalities? Does the striving for simplification of perceived complexity imply an unjustifiedreductionism? Is simplicity really an epistemic ideal or just endorsed for pragmatic reasons, and maybe even an unreliable guide to truth? If so, what should it be replaced with? The aim of this Topical Collection is to bring together contributions from different fields, such as (the philosophy of) physics, biology, economy, psychology, linguistics, or general philosophy of science. Topics may include but are not limited to: • epistemic vs. practical: Is simplicity an epistemic goal of science or just a practical benefit? (Why) should theories aim for simplicity, or (why) not? • physics vs. other sciences: Does the complexity of the world largely preclude simple science? Is complexity also an aim of the special sciences? Does contemporary physics really aim at simplicity? • the concept of simplicity in science: What does it mean to be a ‘simple’ theory? What is simplicity? Can there be a unified account of simplicity or should one embrace pluralism? We invite contributions from the full spectrum of disciplines and their respective philosophies, scientists and scholars reflecting on their respective and neighboring research fields, as well as historians, philosophers and sociologists of science investigating the epistemologies, practices, and discourses of fellow epistemic communities. * For further information, please contact the guest editors: o Florian J. Boge fjboge(a)uni-wuppertal.de <mailto:fjboge@uni-wuppertal.de> o Paul Grünke paul.gruenke(a)kit.edu <mailto:paul.gruenke@kit.edu> o Martin Kingmking(a)uni-bonn.de <mailto:mking@uni-bonn.de> o Miguel Ángel Carretero Sahuquillo carreterosahuqu(a)uni-wuppertal.de <mailto:carreterosahuqu@uni-wuppertal.de> * The deadline for submissions is 31 July 2020 Submit your paper through the Synthese Editorial Manager under a dedicated heading entitled "T.C.: Simplicity out of Complexity? Physics and the Aim of Science". Please visit Editorial Manager® <https://www.editorialmanager.com/synt>and select this heading when submitting the manuscript. Submitted papers will be peer-reviewed as per usual journal practice. At least two reviewers will be assigned to each paper and final decisions will be taken by Synthese Editors in Chief, following the recommendation of the Guest Editors, which is based on the reviewers’ reports. Please prepare papers for anonymous reviews.

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Fwd: Zoom seminars in Bonn
by Michael Cuffaro April 19, 2020

April 19, 2020

This may be of interest to some. Hope you are all keeping well. -Mike -------- Forwarded Message -------- Subject: Zoom seminars in Bonn Date: Sun, 19 Apr 2020 12:21:27 +0000 From: Bacciagaluppi, G. (Guido) <g.bacciagaluppi(a)uu.nl> Dear All, Here is Dennis Lehmkuhl's announcement of the Zoom seminars in (?) Bonn. Best, Guido --------------------------------------------- Dear friends and colleagues, next week the summer semester starts at the University of Bonn, and like in most places in the world, all teaching and research meetings will take place online. This is also true for the Bonn History and Philosophy of Physics Research Seminar, which will take place via Zoom at least (!) during the first 4-6 weeks. The first speaker is Tushar Menon; you can find the title and abstract of his talk below. Since it’s taking place via zoom anyhow, we wondered if you or someone from your local groups would like to attend this and/or some of the other research talks in the forthcoming weeks. If so, you would be very welcome to join us! Please also feel free to forward this email to other historians, philosophers, and physicists, whoever you think might be interested. I will not send out any more emails like this for the talks in the next few weeks (many of which are still to be confirmed), but if you would like to hear about more zoom-talks like this then please feel free to subscribe to our local HPP email list by sending an email with empty subject line and only “subscribe hpp” in the main body of the email to sympa(a)listen.uni-bonn.de <mailto:sympa@listen.uni-bonn.de>. I hope you are all well, and that we can see each other again soon in person! All the best, Dennis Event: Bonn History and Philosophy of Physics Research Seminar Speaker: Tushar Menon (Cambridge and Bonn) Time: 21 April, 4:15pm CET 21.4.: Tushar Menon (Cambridge): “Settlers of Cartan—how to be a true relationalist about General Relativity” Abstract: Oliver Pooley reads the dynamical approach to special relativity (SR), an approach he developed with Harvey Brown, as a form of relationalism, since it seeks to offer an explanation of physical geometry by ontologically reducing it to facts about the symmetries of laws governing material bodies. In particular, Brown describes the Minkowski metric as nothing but the Kleinian geometry associated with the quantum theory of non-gravitational physics. Pooley’s own proposal for how to cash this out is in Humean terms, as a form of `regularity relationalism’ developed in the context of Newtonian mechanics by Nick Huggett. For technical reasons that I will outline in this talk, the prospects for a generalisation of this proposal to general relativity (GR) have appeared bleak; indeed, Brown’s own approach to the metric in GR is non-reductive. In this talk, I argue that an understanding of GR in terms of Cartan geometry, a generalisation of Klein geometry, solves the problem, and allows for an ontological reduction of the metric of GR along the same lines as the regularity relationalist account of SR. (This talk is based on joint work with James Read) Zoom link: https://uni-bonn.zoom.us/j/343765054?pwd=T00yNk1xb1E0N2dKZUY3bW9oTDg1dz09 Meeting Password: 665670 -------------------- Dennis Lehmkuhl Lichtenberg Professor for History and Philosophy of Physics, Institute of Philosophy, University of Bonn history-and-philosophy-of-physics.com <http://history-and-philosophy-of-physics.com/> ------------------ Guido Bacciagaluppi Descartes Centre for the History and Philosophy of Science and the Humanities Web:http://www.uu.nl/en/research/history-and-philosophy-of-science HPS The Movie: https://youtu.be/EpUNLCo6C8Q Visiting address: Buys Ballotgebouw room 311 Princetonplein 5 3584 CC Utrecht Netherlands Postal address: Freudenthal Instituut Postbus 85.170 3508 AD Utrecht Netherlands Email: g.bacciagaluppi(a)uu.nl Tel.: +31 (0)30 253 5621 Fax: +31 (0)30 253 7494 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *From:* Bacciagaluppi, G. (Guido) <g.bacciagaluppi(a)uu.nl> *Sent:* Monday, April 13, 2020 12:06 *To:* Muller, F.A. (Frederik) <F.A.Muller(a)uu.nl> *Cc:* Michiel P. Seevinck <m.p.seevinck(a)gmail.com>; Dieks, D.G.B.J. (Dennis) <d.dieks(a)uu.nl>; Geurt Sengers <geurtsengers(a)gmail.com>; Beernaert, R. (Raoul) <R.Beernaert(a)students.uu.nl>; s.deharo(a)uva.nl <s.deharo(a)uva.nl>; maurits.moeys(a)gmail.com <maurits.moeys(a)gmail.com>; S.M. Rijken <rijken(a)esphil.eur.nl>; Lange, O.A. (Otto) <o.a.lange(a)uu.nl>; J. de Swart <jacobusgdeswart(a)gmail.com>; Jeroen van Dongen <J.A.E.F.vanDongen(a)uva.nl>; Moley, D.E. (Damon) <d.e.moley(a)students.uu.nl>; Hermens, R. (Ronnie) <r.hermens(a)uu.nl>; Sean Gryb <sean.gryb(a)gmail.com>; Jorna, T.F.K. (Thomas) <t.f.k.jorna(a)students.uu.nl>; m.t.hemme(a)student.rug.nl <m.t.hemme(a)student.rug.nl>; Petit, F.M. (Fleur) <f.m.petit(a)uu.nl>; Burke, M.C. (Maura) <m.c.burke(a)students.uu.nl>; s.m.friederich(a)rug.nl <s.m.friederich(a)rug.nl>; Michele Ginammi <mginammi(a)gmail.com>; Fuente, S. de la (Soscha) <s.fuente(a)students.uu.nl>; ruwardarthur(a)gmail.com <ruwardarthur(a)gmail.com>; Vergouwen, S.H. (Sanne) <s.h.vergouwen(a)students.uu.nl>; Schmitz-Justen, P.H.W. (Philipp) <p.h.w.schmitz-justen(a)students.uu.nl>; Klein Douwel, M. (Mon) <m.kleindouwel(a)students.uu.nl>; Allen, G.S. (Geoff) <g.s.allen(a)students.uu.nl>; Wouter van Soest <wouthoorn(a)hotmail.com>; Gijs Leegwater <leegwater(a)esphil.eur.nl>; mike(a)michaelcuffaro.com <mike(a)michaelcuffaro.com>; Tagliani, E. (Edoardo) <e.tagliani(a)students.uu.nl>; Baanders, P.H.L. (Pauline) <p.h.l.baanders(a)students.uu.nl>; Buonocore, G. (Giovanni) <g.buonocore(a)uu.nl>; Marc Holman <m.holman(a)kpnmail.nl>; Niels Martens <martensniels(a)gmail.com>; dincorcevik(a)gmail.com <dincorcevik(a)gmail.com>; Aarts, J.E.C.M. (Jos) <j.e.c.m.aarts(a)students.uu.nl> *Subject:* John Conway Dear All, A prominent victim of the virus: John Conway at Princeton (https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2020/04/12/wiskundige-conway-was-een-speels-genie… - funnily enough I have found this only in Dutch). I have heard of a few of our colleagues in the States who have had it, but they are all on the mend. I hope you are all safe and well. (Marc: yours was just precautionary self-isolation I hope!) Keep safe! Guido ------------------ Guido Bacciagaluppi Descartes Centre for the History and Philosophy of Science and the Humanities Web:http://www.uu.nl/en/research/history-and-philosophy-of-science HPS The Movie: https://youtu.be/EpUNLCo6C8Q Visiting address: Buys Ballotgebouw room 311 Princetonplein 5 3584 CC Utrecht Netherlands Postal address: Freudenthal Instituut Postbus 85.170 3508 AD Utrecht Netherlands Email: g.bacciagaluppi(a)uu.nl Tel.: +31 (0)30 253 5621 Fax: +31 (0)30 253 7494

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New CFP - Sixth Spacetime Conference
by vpetkov＠minkowskiinstitute.org April 11, 2020

April 11, 2020

New Call for Papers Sixth International Conference on the Nature and Ontology of Spacetime Due to the present situation the conference will be held on 28 September - 1 October 2020 When: 28 September - 1 October 2020 Where: Albena (famous Black Sea resort near Varna), Bulgaria Submission Deadline: 1 August 2020 Website: http://www.minkowskiinstitute.org/conferences/2020/ Contact: 2020conference(a)minkowskiinstitute.org The Scientific Organizing Committee invites papers from physicists, philosophers of physics and philosophers on any topic related to the nature and ontology of spacetime. As there is no main theme of the sixth spacetime conference a number of special sessions have been suggested by colleagues (http://www.minkowskiinstitute.org/conferences/2020/call.html) - Nature of time - Flow of time; Becoming (continuation of the Special Session on Becoming and the panel discussion at the Second Hermann Minkowski Meeting on the Foundations of Spacetime Physics on Wednesday, May 15, 2019) - Is spacetime a real (physical) four-dimensional entity or a mathematical concept? - Open Questions in Spacetime Physics - The controversy over Relativistic Mass - The problem with the gravitational energy-momentum pseudotensor in general relativity - should we have a closer look at the fact that the mathematical formalism of general relativity does not yield a proper tensor of the gravitational energy-momentum? - What is the difference between matter and geometry in general relativity, semi-classical gravity, and quantum gravity? - Do Black Holes Actually Exist? - Is there a conflict between relativity and quantum mechanics? - Quantum Gravity: Where do we stand? Depending on the number of colleagues participating in a special session, we plan to publish a volume with the talks presented at the session, which will include constructive criticism and the replies of the authors. Contributed papers in the form of extended abstracts of between one and two pages should be emailed to 2020conference(a)minkowskiinstitute.org by August 1, 2020. Submissions will be reviewed and notification of acceptance will be sent on August 17, 2020. Scientific Organizing Committee: Dennis Dieks (Utrecht University) Mauro Dorato (University of Rome Three) George F. R. Ellis (University of Cape Town) Robert Geroch (University of Chicago) Eleanor Knox (King's College London) Vesselin Petkov (Minkowski Institute, Montreal) Steven Savitt (University of British Columbia) Anguel Stefanov (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences) James Owen Weatherall (University of California, Irvine) Christian Wuethrich (University of Geneva)

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