The Institute of Philosophy of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków organizes a conference "Modality in Physics", dedicated to the explanation of the role of modalities in theoretical physics. Does the physical reality have an irreducible modal aspect? Are there modal properties, objects or other conceptual tools that are indispensable to understand physical theories? If they are not indispensable, can taking them into account still allow a better interpretation of physical theories? If this is the case, what type of modalities should we associate with particular physical theories?
Modality in Physics - call for abstracts
The Institute of Philosophy of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków organizes - from 11 June until 13 June 2018 - a conference "Modality in Physics", dedicated to the explanation of the role of modalities in theoretical physics. Does the physical reality have an irreducible modal aspect? Are there modal properties, objects or other conceptual tools that are indispensable to understand physical theories? If they are not indispensable, can taking them into account still allow a better interpretation of physical theories? If this is the case, what type of modalities should we associate with particular physical theories?
In particular, we would like to address the following questions:
- Do we need "modally rich" analyses of the laws of nature? If we do, then how should they be construed?
- Are there any general reasons to introduce modalities into physical theories?
- Do modalities play any role in the classical physics?
- Does statistical physics require modal concepts?
- Do we need modalities to understand space-time theories?
- Do quantum theories implicate a modal component?
- What are the sources of modalities in physics? (e.g. symmetries, indeterminism, Cauchy problem)
Lecturers:
Guido Bacciagaluppi (Utrecht University) - Causation as Emergent Phenomenon: A case study
Andreas Bartels (University of Bonn) - Explaining the Modal Force of Natural Laws
Tomasz Bigaj (University of Warsaw) - What kind of de re modality does the spacetime substantivalist need?
Mauro Dorato (Universita Roma Tre) - The early modern origin of the modal conception of the laws of nature
Aldo Filomeno (Universidad Nacional Autonoma de México) - Statistical necessity without a guiding dynamics
Samuel C. Fletcher (University of Minnesota, Twin Cities) - Counterfactual Reasoning within Physical Theories
Marton Gomori (Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest) - On the Role of Statistical versus Single-Case Dependencies in Einstein's Incompleteness Arguments
Balázs Gyenis (Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest) - Towards new notion(s) of physical possibility
Jenann Ismael (University of Arizona, Tuscon) - Totality and Modality
Barry Loewer (Rutgers University) - Best systems Accounts of Scientific Modalities and Properties
Joanna Luc (Jagiellonian University, Kraków) - Generalized manifolds as basic objects of General Relativity
Tim Maudlin (New York University) - A Modal Free Lunch
Stephen Mumford (Durham University) - Causation in Quantum Mechanics (with Fredrik Andersen and Rani Lill Anjum)
Thomas Müller (University of Konstanz) - Anchoring the present in space-like modal correlations
Tomasz Placek (Jagiellonian University, Kraków) - Models for Modal Indeterminism
Oliver Pooley (Oxford University) - Modality and the Hole Argument
James Read (Oxford University) - Explanation, geometry, and conspiracy in relativity theory
Michael Stoeltzner (University of South Carolina, Columbia) - Formal Teleology, Modality or Structural Realism? On what we can still learn from the principle of least action
Gabor Szabó (Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest) - Noncommuting common causes and modality
László E. Szabó (Eötvös University, Budapest) - Intrinsic, extrinsic, and the constitutive a priori
Marek Woszczek (University of Poznań) - Quantum Contextuality and the Time Symmetric Causal Powers
The website of the conference: https://modphys.tumblr.com
Organisers: Tomasz Placek (Jagiellonian University, Kraków); Gábor Hofer-Szabó (Research Centre for the Humanities, Budapest); Joanna Luc (Jagiellonian University, Kraków).