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/veranst... *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