Physics and Philosophy of Time

Organized and sponsored by the Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy and the Chair for Philosophy of Science in the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Lausanne

The focus of this summer school will be to appreciate how physics and philosophy interact to contribute to our understanding of the nature of time. Our goal is to bring together scholars from both areas to consider central aspects of time as they arise in various physical theories, as well as how traditional philosophical questions regarding time may both motivate physical theorizing and find themselves constrained by it. In particular, we shall consider what statistical physics, the special and general theories of relativity, quantum mechanics, and recent developments in quantum gravity imply for our understanding of (space and) time. The relevant scientific theories consider, among many other topics, the physics of motion, the nature of the continuum, and the geometry of flat and curved spaces. Although the summer school will also consider more straightforwardly philosophical issues, the primary focus will be on the foundations of spacetime as the philosophy of physics is concerned with.

Organizers and Scientific Committee

Detlef Dürr (Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich)

Michael Esfeld (University of Lausanne)

Stephan Hartmann (Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich)

Christian Wüthrich (University of California, San Diego)

Invited Speakers

Claus Beisbart (University of Bern) 

Gordon Belot (University of Michigan)

Mathias Frisch (University of Maryland)

Sheldon Goldstein (Rutgers University)

Jenann Ismael (University of Arizona)

Tim Maudlin (New York University)

Nino Zanghì (University of Genova)

Poster

Download 

Public

PhD students in the intersection between physics and philosophy

Master students who envisage doing a PhD in the philosophy of physics

General public being acquainted with the subject at least on master level

Date

23 - 28 July 2013 

Venue

Hotel Sonnhalde 
Hochfirstweg 24
79853 Lenzkirch-Saig
Black Forest, Germany

Nearest airport: Basel (or Frankfurt or Zurich), then take the train to Freiburg (Breisgau) Hbf, after that the train to Titisee or Neustadt (Schwarzwald).

From there take the local bus service (Bus 7257) to Saig Ochsen, Lenzkirch which is the final destination. 

Train tickets are available on bahn.de.

Fee

EUR 600 for PhD and master students

EUR 900 for other participants

includes

• accommodation
• full board (including coffee breaks, but no further drinks)
• tuition

Inscription

The application deadline was 1 April.

For the inscription to be valid, the participation fee has to be paid via bank transfer by 15 May 2013 (we cannot accept credit cards):

Recipient: LMU München
Bank account no.: 24 868
BLZ: 700 500 00
IBAN: DE53 7005 0000 0000 0248 68 
SWIFT/BIC: BYLADEMM
Name of Bank: Bayerische Landesbank München
Address of Bank: Brienner Straße 18, 80333 Munich, Germany
Address of LMU München: Geschwister-Scholl-Platz 1, 80539 Munich, Germany
please indicate as purpose of transfer: 1507011/821376-1-10.5/Hartmann

Announcements

On 22 July a workshop on The Metaphysics of Time will take place in Lausanne. There will be a collective travel from Lausanne to the summer school on 23 July. Please book your accomodation in Lausanne and train tickets individually. For your stay in Lausanne we recommend the Hotel des Voyageurs. 

From 29-31 July the Foundations of Physics conference will take place in Munich. Please book your train tickets to Munich individually if you want to visit this conference.

Train tickets can be booked on bahn.de.

Contact

For all practical issues, please contact Mario.Hubert@unil.ch.

Provisional Programme