January 2026 - philphysmunich

Eighth Spacetime Conference - Call for papers
by Vesselin Petkov Jan. 19, 2026

Jan. 19, 2026

Dear Colleagues, Here is the essential information about the forthcoming spacetime conference: Conference: Eighth Spacetime Conference https://minkowskiinstitute.com/conferences/2026/ When: September 14-17, 2026 Where: Hotel Sandy Beach in Albena (near Varna), Bulgaria. The place is a guarded resort - arguably the best green, family-friendly Black Sea resort. Organizer: Minkowski Institute Arrival: September 13, 2026 Departure: September 18, 2026 Abstract submission deadline: June 1, 2026 Send abstracts to: 2026conference(a)minkowskiinstitute.com <mailto:2026conference@minkowskiinstitute.com> Registration deadline: August 1, 2026 Special sessions: "What is the quantum object (the electron, for example) in spacetime?"; for more see the Call for Papers page (https://minkowskiinstitute.com/conferences/2026/call.html) Conference volume: Selected peer-reviewed papers presented at the conference will be published by Minkowski Institute Press, which has published 95 books to date. Scientific Organizing Committee: Valia Allori (University of Bergamo) James Binkoski (Dartmouth College) Carolyn Brighouse (Occidental College, Los Angeles) Karen Crowther (University of Oslo) Erik Curiel (University of Bonn) Robert Geroch (University of Chicago) John B. Manchak (University of California, Irvine) Vesselin Petkov (Minkowski Institute, Montreal) James Read (University of Oxford) Carlo Rovelli (Centre de Physique Théorique de Luminy, Marseille, France) Anguel Stefanov (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences) The Scientific Organizing Committee invites papers from physicists, mathematicians, philosophers of physics and philosophers on any topic related to the nature and ontology of spacetime. We encourage colleagues, who do not plan to give a talk, to attend the conference for two reasons: The panel discussions (at the end of the afternoon sessions) on open questions in spacetime physics have turned out to be very productive exchanges of ideas and insights according to all participants of previous Spacetime Conferences (https://www.minkowskiinstitute.com/conferences/) and Hermann Minkowski Meetings on the Foundations of Spacetime Physics (https://www.minkowskiinstitute.com/meetings/) Special discussion time in the afternoons (after 16:00) is included in the program to stimulate more informal discussions among participants. Vesselin Petkov One of the Founders and current Director of Minkowski Institute https://www.minkowskiinstitute.com/ Montreal, Canada Personal site: https://vesselinpetkov.com/

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Event: 100 Years of the,Schrödinger Equation, January 22, 2026
by John Dougherty Jan. 19, 2026

Jan. 19, 2026

*Panel discussion on the meaning of the wave function, 100 years after Schrödinger's publication on Quantum Mechanics.* An interdisciplinary panel discussion on the meaning of the wave function, with: *Časlav Brukner* (Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information, Vienna) *Ignacio Cirac* (Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics, Garching) *Stephan Hartmann* (LMU Munich, Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy) *Alyssa Ney* (LMU Munich, Chair for Metaphysics) Thursday January 22, 2026 11:00-1:00 Herbert Walther Lecture Hall Max Planck Center for Quantum Optics, Garching https://www.mpq.mpg.de/events/44242/6512195

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Call for Abstracts ILMPS Philosophy of Physics Conference, 1-2 June, LMU Munich
by John Dougherty Jan. 19, 2026

Jan. 19, 2026

Fifth Irvine-London-Munich-PoliMi-Salzburg Conference in Philosophy and Foundations of Physics Dates:June 1-2 2026 Venue:LMU Munich (Munich, Germany) Organizing committee:John Dougherty (LMU), Alexander Franklin (KCL), Eleanor Knox (KCL), Patricia Palacios (Salzburg), Bryan Roberts (LSE), Giovanni Valente (PoliMi), Jim Weatherall (Irvine), Charlotte Werndl (Salzburg) Call for Abstracts: Over the past decades, important contributions to the mathematical and conceptual foundations of physical theories have been made within the philosophical community. Conversely, critical analysis of the formal structures of our best physical theories inform central philosophical concerns, and in some cases new theorems have been proven and new lines of argument developed that are of philosophical significance. This conference series aims to bring together philosophers, physicists, and mathematicians working on such issues. This year’s event will be held on June 1-2 at LMU Munich (Munich, Germany). It will immediately precede a workshop on “Open Systems in Physics” taking place on June 2-3, 2026. Our expected list of workshop speakers includes Siska de Baerdemaeker (Stockholm), Michael Cuffaro (LMU), Alexander Franklin (KCL), Viktoria Kabel (ETH Zurich), Karim Thébault (Bristol), and Charlotte Werndl (Salzburg). Papers on any topic of philosophy and foundations of physics by early career researchers, especially graduate students and post-doctoral scholars, will be given priority. Submissions by scholars under-represented within the philosophy and foundations of physics community are especially encouraged. Abstracts no longer than 1000 words should be submitted via https://app.oxfordabstracts.com/stages/80636/submitter <https://app.oxfordabstracts.com/stages/80636/submitter>by 1 March 2026. Decisions will be communicated soon after. The ILMPS conference 2026 and the workshop on “Open Systems in Physics” are financially supported by the Postdoc Support Fund at LMU Munich. ILMPS website: https://ilmpsnetwork.wordpress.com/

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Talk: David Wallace, "Emergence and Naturalness", 12 Jan., 18:00-20:00
by John Dougherty Jan. 6, 2026

Jan. 6, 2026

The following lecture may be of interest to subscribers of this list: David Wallace, University of Pittsburgh Philosophy and Physics Colloquium Mo.: 18:00 - 20:00 Uhr 12. Januar 2026 https://www.philosophie.lmu.de/de/aktuelles/veranstaltungsuebersicht/verans… *Emergence and Naturalness*: If we want to start with the physics of the very small – molecules, atoms, subatomic particles – and work out the emergent physics of large-scale systems – dust grains, iron bars, planets – we need to assume more than the laws of the very small: we have to make an additional assumption, often called /naturalness/. Despite the name, this assumption is puzzling in many respects, and the puzzle deepens into paradox because in our best theories of fundamental physics it seems to fail in two very specific places – the mass of the Higgs boson, and the rate of expansion of the Universe. In the lecture, I'll explain what the naturalness assumption is, how it relates to philosophical questions of 'strong' vs 'weak' emergence, why we need it in almost all of physics, and why its failure in particle physics and cosmology is one of the deepest problems in contemporary physics. -- John Dougherty Assistant Professor Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy Lehrstuhl für Wissenschaftstheorie Fakultät für Philosophie, Wissenschaftstheorie und Religionswissenschaft Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Ludwigstraße 31 80539 München, Deutschland

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