Lecture Series »Thinking Machines: History, Present and Future of Artificial Intelligence«

  • Posted on 7 February 2021
  • /Under Lecture
The international and interdisciplinary online lecture series »Thinking Machines: History, Present and Future of Artificial Intelligence« in Summer Term 2021 will be jointly hosted by the Research Institute for the History of Science and Technology, Deutsches Museum, the European New School of Digital Studies, the Munich Center for Technology in Society (MCTS), and the Philosophy of Computing group, ICFO. Speakers include: Pamela McCorduck, Stepahnie Dick, Shannon Vallor, Harry Collins, Wolfgang Bibel, Vincent Müller, Virgia Dignum, Kristian Kersting. More details and full programme here.continue reading →

Warsaw Spacetime Colloquium: Summer semester program

  • Posted on 25 January 2021
  • /Under News
The Philosophy of Physics Group is happy to announce the program of the Warsaw Spacetime Colloquium for the upcoming term: 26 February (17:00-19:00 CET) - Sean Carroll (Caltech) - "From Quantum Mechanics to Spacetime" 12 March (17:00-19:00 CET) - Daniele Oriti (LMU Munich) - TBA 26 March (17:00-19:00 CET) - Sabine Hossenfelder (Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies) - "Superdeterminism" 09 April (17:00-19:00 CEST) - Erik Curiel (LMU Munich, Harvard University) - "The Dynamics of Classical Physics Determines the Structure of Newtonian Spacetime; That of Quantum Physics Does Not" 23 April (17:00-19:00 CEST) -…continue reading →

New Publication in Synthese: Does General Relativity Highlight Necessary Connections in Nature?

  • Posted on 19 January 2021
  • /Under ICFO
The paper entitled “Does General Relativity Highlight Necessary Connections in Nature?“, written by Antonio Vassallo, has been published in Synthese (open access). The paper discusses the physical role that the Bianchi identities play in general relativity, and investigates whether these identities—qua part of a physical law—highlight some kind of a posteriori necessity in a Kripkean sense.continue reading →

Warsaw Spacetime Colloquium: Vera Matarese (22 January on Zoom)

  • Posted on 18 January 2021
  • /Under News
On Friday, 22 January, Vera Matarese (University of Bern) will give a talk entitled “Spacetime the many substances” (abstract below). The meeting will take place online on Zoom (16:00-18:00 CET). If you have not registered yet, you can do so by sending a message to antonio.vassallo@pw.edu.pl. The recordings of the previous meetings are available on the ICFO’s YouTube channel. Abstract: The view that loop quantum gravity’s spin-networks represent concrete atoms of space is proposed in Vassallo & Esfeld (2014), which adopts a primitive ontology approach to spacetime. Rovelli (2015), on the contrary, warns…continue reading →

Warsaw Spacetime Colloquium: Karim Thébault (8 January on Zoom)

  • Posted on 4 January 2021
  • /Under News
On Friday, 8 January, Karim Thébault (University of Bristol) will give a talk entitled “Poincaré, dark energy, and the deadly robots of Krikkit: Solving the problem of time via superpositions of the cosmological constant” (abstract below). The meeting will take place online on Zoom (16:00-18:00 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 winter semester can be found here, while the recordings of the previous meetings are available on the ICFO’s YouTube channel. Abstract: Henri Poincaré, in a strangely neglected…continue reading →

Article by Andrzej Biłat published in Synthese

We are pleased to announce that the article by Andrzej Biłat, entitled The correctness and relevance of the modal ontological argument, was published in Synthese. The paper is published in OA. We encourage you to read it on the journal's website: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11229-020-02908-5.continue reading →

International Center for Formal Ontology (ICFO)

  • Posted on 2 January 2021
  • /Under Workshop
The International Center for Formal Ontology (ICFO) is a centre of research excellence devoted to the formal ontology. ICFO was created in February 2015 and is affiliated at Warsaw University of Technology, Faculty of Administration and Social Sciences, Poland. For more general information about the Center visit our Aims, Program Council, Members, Publications, Research collaborators  and Research Groups. continue reading →

Warsaw Spacetime Colloquium: Radin Dardashti (11 December on Zoom)

  • Posted on 7 December 2020
  • /Under News
On Friday, 11 December, Radin Dardashti (University of Wuppertal) will give a talk entitled “The rise and fall of scientific problems” (abstract below). The meeting will take place online on Zoom (16:00-18:00 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 winter semester can be found here, while the recordings of the previous meetings are available on the ICFO’s YouTube channel. Abstract: The everyday practice of scientists is to a large extent determined by the scientific problems they are confronted with.…continue reading →

Warsaw Spacetime Colloquium: Claus Kiefer (27 November on Zoom)

  • Posted on 23 November 2020
  • /Under Workshop
On Friday, 27 November, Claus Kiefer (University of Cologne) will give a talk entitled “Time in quantum gravity” (abstract below). The meeting will take place online on Zoom (16:00-18:00 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 winter semester can be found here, while the recordings of the previous meetings are available on the ICFO's YouTube channel. Abstract: Time is absolute in standard quantum theory and dynamical in general relativity. The combination of the two theories into a theory of…continue reading →

Warsaw Spacetime Colloquium: James Read (30 October on Zoom)

  • Posted on 28 October 2020
  • /Under News
On Friday, 30 October, James Read (University of Oxford) will give a talk entitled “Shifts and reference” (abstract below). The meeting will take place online on Zoom (16:00-18:00 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 winter semester can be found here, while the recordings of the previous meetings are available on the ICFO's YouTube channel. Abstract: Maudlin’s ‘metric essentialist’ response to the hole argument of general relativity is well-known, but differs strikingly from his response to what is often…continue reading →