Speaker: Peter Evans (University of Queensland) Date: Wed., Nov 25 Location: Ludwigstraße 31, ground floor, Room E21 Time: 16:15 - 17:45 Title: Quantum causal models, faithfulness and retrocausality Abstract: Wood and Spekkens (2015) argue that any causal model explaining the EPRB correlations and satisfying no-signalling must also violate the assumption that the model faithfully reproduces the statistical dependences and independences---a so-called “fine-tuning” of the causal parameters; this includes, in particular, retrocausal explanations of the EPRB correlations. I consider this analysis with a view to enumerating the possible responses an advocate of retrocausal explanations might propose. I focus on the response of Näger (2015), who argues that the central ideas of causal explanations can be saved if one accepts the possibility of a stable fine-tuning of the causal parameters. I argue that, in light of this view, a violation of faithfulness does not necessarily rule out retrocausal explanations of the EPRB correlations. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Speaker: James Fraser (University of Leeds) Date: Thu., Nov 26 Location: Ludwigstraße 31, ground floor, Room E21 Time: 12:15 - 13:45 Title: Relativity in Quantum Field Theory Abstract: There has recently been heated debate amongst philosophers of physics about which formulation of quantum field theory (QFT) ought to be the basis of philosophical investigations of high energy physics. Doreen Fraser has defended the primacy of axiomatic formulations of QFT, while David Wallace advocates the philosophical significance of cutoff QFTs. In this paper I focus on one issue underlying this dispute, namely the status of relativity in QFT. While Fraser takes QFT to incorporate a commitment to Minkowski space-time, Wallace views QFT as an effective field theory which says nothing about the fundamental nature of space-time, and is unfazed by the fact that imposing a cutoff breaks Poincaré covariance. One way out of this apparent stalemate, I suggest, is to relax the idea that there is a one preferred 'foundational' version of QFT. We can then allow that different formalisms, which incorporate different claims about space-time structure, are the appropriate objects of study for different philosophical projects. In particular, I argue that the question of whether quantum theory can be combined with fundamental Minkowski space-time structure and what we ought to believe about the world given the successes of the standard model are distinct and that it may be that axiomatic and cutoff formulations of QFT are the right starting points for each.