Seminar on the Philosophical Foundations of Quantum Gravity

13-14 March 2015 – University of California, San Diego

Invited Speakers:

Alyssa Ney (Rochester)
Daniele Oriti (MPI for Gravitational Physics, Golm)
Amanda W Peet (Toronto)
David Rideout (UCSD)
Christian Wüthrich (UCSD)

The investigation of quantum gravity has been central to theoretical physics for at least two decades, but philosophy has only engaged with this field in very a fragmentary way. Building on the first such meeting that took place in Chicago in September 2013, the purpose of this meeting is to continue to bring together people with research agendas in quantum gravity, to present their work and develop some common understanding of philosophical topics, questions, approaches, and solutions. Because the field is very new, many of those involved are near or recent PhDs – along with established scholars, they are encouraged to attend, to share their work or learn.

We invite technically and philosophically informed presentations on any topics concerning the foundational implications for the nature of time of quantum gravity: for instance, could a theory do without time? What do quantum black holes reveal about the nature of causality? What is the relation between space and time in quantum gravity? What is the nature of dynamics in theories of quantum gravity? And so on. The paper presentations should be suitable for presentations in 30 minutes plus question period. Please submit an extended abstract of up to 1,000 words, together with the title of the talk. ABD graduate students or recent PhDs are particularly invited to submit abstracts.

Deadline for papers and proposals: 15 October 2014 (decisions by 30 December 2014) – please prepare them for blind refereeing. We do not anticipate sharing refereeing comments.

We will provide financial support of two kinds:

• For speakers without access to institutional travel funds we will offer honoraria. Please indicate in your submission if you do not have access to institutional funds and would like to be considered for these honoraria.

• For graduate students who cannot get their expenses covered through their institutions, we will offer bursaries. Recipients of these bursaries do not need to be speakers at the meeting. Please indicate in your submission or in a separate email if you qualify and would like to be considered for these bursaries.

Direct correspondence to: beyondspacetimeseminar@gmail.com.

For further information, please visit: https://beyondspacetime.net/
The organizers,

Nick Huggett
David Rideout
Christian Wüthrich

Funding Provided by the New Agendas for the Study of Time at the Center for Time at the University of Sydney.

The deadline for applying to graduate travel bursaries has been extended to Friday, 30 August 2013. To apply, go here for details.

27-29 September 2013 – University of Illinois at Chicago

Invited Speakers:

Jeremy Butterfield (Cambridge)

Elena Castellani (Florence)

Bianca Dittrich (Perimeter Institute)

Jeff Harvey (Chicago)

Nick Huggett (UIC)

Christian Wüthrich (UCSD)

The investigation of quantum gravity has been central to theoretical physics for at least two decades, but philosophy has only engaged with this field in very a fragmentary way. The purpose of this meeting is bring together people with research agendas in quantum gravity, to present their work and develop some common understanding of philosophical topics, questions, approaches, and solutions. Because the field is very new, many of those involved are near or recent PhDs – along with established scholars, they are encouraged to attend, to share their work or learn. Continue reading CFP: Seminar on the Philosophical Foundations of Quantum Gravity →