Warsaw Spacetime Colloquium: Gordon Belot (22 October on Zoom)

  • Posted on 18 October 2021
  • /Under News
On Friday, 22 October, Gordon Belot (University of Michigan) will give a talk titled “The Mach-Einstein Principle of 1917-1918” (abstract below). The meeting will take place online on Zoom (17:00-19:00 CEST). If you have not registered yet, you can do so here. You can address any inquiry to antonio.vassallo@pw.edu.pl. ABSTRACT In 1917 and 1918 Einstein was working on relativistic cosmology and on promoting and explaining general relativity in correspondence. During this period, the thesis that the spacetime metric should be determined by the distribution of matter played an important role in his thought.…continue reading →

New Publication by Antonio Vassallo in Erkenntnis

  • Posted on 17 October 2021
  • /Under News
We are pleased to announce that Antonio Vassallo has published a new article: The Metaphysics of Decoherence. Erkenntnis, DOI 10.1007/s10670-021-00469-8, 2021. The paper investigates the type of realism that best suits the framework of decoherence taken at face value without postulating a plurality of worlds, or additional hidden variables, or non-unitary dynamical mechanisms. It is argued that this reading of decoherence leads to an extremely radical type of perspectival realism, especially when cosmological decoherence is considered. The article is co-authored by Davide Romano (University of Lisbon).continue reading →

Warsaw Spacetime Colloquium 2021/2022 (online)

  • Posted on 30 September 2021
  • /Under News
The Philosophy of Physics Group at the Warsaw University of Technology is happy to announce the Warsaw Spacetime Colloquium 2021-2022. The Colloquium focuses on the foundations of spacetime physics broadly construed and will be held fortnightly on Zoom. The program for the winter semester is the following: 22 October (17:00-19:00 CEST) – Gordon Belot (University of Michigan) – “The Mach-Einstein Principle of 1917-1918.” 5 November (17:00-19:00 CET) – Robert DiSalle (Western University) – TBA 19 November (17:00-19:00 CET) – Jeremy Butterfield & Henrique Gomes (University of Cambridge) - "Assessing the Hole Argument." 3…continue reading →

Warsaw Spacetime Colloquium: JB Manchak (28 May on Zoom)

  • Posted on 24 May 2021
  • /Under News
On Friday, 28 May, JB Manchak (University of California, Irvine) will give a talk entitled “On the (In?)Stability of Spacetime Inextendibility” (abstract below). The meeting will take place online on Zoom (17:00-19:00 CEST). If you have not registered yet, you can do so by sending a message to antonio.vassallo@pw.edu.pl. The Colloquium is organized by the Philosophy of Physics Group at the International Center for Formal Ontology (Faculty of Administration and Social Sciences, Warsaw University of Technology). The recordings of the previous meetings are available on the ICFO's YouTube channel. ABSTRACT Within the context…continue reading →

Warsaw Spacetime Colloquium: Baptiste Le Bihan (21 May on Zoom)

On Friday, 21 May, Baptiste Le Bihan (University of Geneva) will give a talk entitled “Quantum Gravity and Mereology: Not So Simple” (abstract below). The meeting will take place online on Zoom (17:00-19:00 CEST). If you have not registered yet, you can do so by sending a message to antonio.vassallo@pw.edu.pl. The Colloquium is organized by the Philosophy of Physics Group at the International Center for Formal Ontology (Faculty of Administration and Social Sciences, Warsaw University of Technology). ABSTRACT A number of philosophers have argued in favour of extended simples on the grounds that…continue reading →

Warsaw Spacetime Colloquium: Tim Maudlin (7 May on Zoom)

  • Posted on 29 April 2021
  • /Under Workshop
On Friday, 7 May, Tim Maudlin (New York University) will give a talk entitled “S=kln(B(W)): Boltzmann entropy, the Second Law, and the Architecture of Hell” (abstract below). The meeting will take place online on Zoom (17:00-19:00 CEST). If you have not registered yet, you can do so by sending a message to antonio.vassallo@pw.edu.pl. The Colloquium is organized by the Philosophy of Physics Group at the International Center for Formal Ontology (Faculty of Administration and Social Sciences, Warsaw University of Technology). ABSTRACT The concept of entropy was introduced in the setting of classical thermodynamics,…continue reading →

Warsaw Spacetime Colloquium: Marco Giovanelli (23 April on Zoom)

  • Posted on 19 April 2021
  • /Under Workshop
On Friday, 23 April, Marco Giovanelli (University of Turin) will give a talk entitled “Special Relativity as a Theory of Principles. Reflections On Einstein’s Distinction between Constructive and Principle Theories” (abstract below). The meeting will take place online on Zoom (16:00-18:00 CEST). If you have not registered yet, you can do so by sending a message to antonio.vassallo@pw.edu.pl. The Colloquium is organized by the Philosophy of Physics Group at the International Center for Formal Ontology (Faculty of Administration and Social Sciences, Warsaw University of Technology). ABSTRACT In a 1919 article for the Times…continue reading →

Warsaw Spacetime Colloquium: Erik Curiel (9 April on Zoom)

  • Posted on 5 April 2021
  • /Under News
On Friday, 9 April, Erik Curiel (LMU Munich, Harvard University) will give a talk entitled “The Dynamics of Classical Physics Determines the Structure of Newtonian Spacetime; That of Quantum Physics Does Not” (abstract below). The meeting will take place online on Zoom (17:00-19:00 CEST). If you have not registered yet, you can do so by sending a message to antonio.vassallo@pw.edu.pl. The program for the summer semester can be found here, while the recordings of the previous meetings are available on the ICFO’s YouTube channel. ABSTRACT I describe a few theorems that show that,…continue reading →

Warsaw Spacetime Colloquium: Sabine Hossenfelder (26 March on Zoom)

  • Posted on 22 March 2021
  • /Under News
On Friday, 26 March, Sabine Hossenfelder (Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies) will give a talk entitled “Superdeterminism” (abstract below). The meeting will take place online on Zoom (17:00-19:00 CET). If you have not registered yet, you can do so by sending a message to antonio.vassallo@pw.edu.pl. The program for the summer semester can be found here, while the recordings of the previous meetings are available on the ICFO's YouTube channel. ABSTRACT In this talk I will explain what superdeterminism is, why the objections that have so far been raised to it are unjustified, and…continue reading →

Next publication in Synthese: “Epistemic and poietic intentional processes”

  • Posted on 19 March 2021
  • /Under Workshop
The paper Epistemic and poietic intentional processes by Jozef Lubacz was published in Synthese. The paper is available in open access. Abstract "We examine the intentional processes that correspond to conceptualizations of activities performed by subjects with the intention of achieving an objective. Taking as its basis a general framework of intentional processes, two types of such process are considered: epistemic ones, aimed at acquiring knowledge about something, and poietic ones, aimed at bringing about something. The “something” is understood as anything that the processes can pertain to: a physical, mental or abstract…continue reading →