8 Christian Wüthrich :: Southern California Philosophy of Physics Group

General Information

This group is a forum for philosophers (faculty members and graduate students) in Southern California to meet and discuss their own research and other recent articles in philosophy of physics. We intend to meet 2-3 times per quarter, with topics determined by the interests of the group.

Unless otherwise noted, meetings will be hosted by the LPS department at UC Irvine, in the LPS seminar room (777 Social Science Tower) [directions]. For instructions regarding parking and to reserve a permit, contact Patty Jones, LPS Department Manager.

Go to the listserv homepage to subscribe to a listserv with announcements related to the reading group. Feel free to contact me (wuthrich [AT] ucsd [DOT] edu) with questions or comments.

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2012-2013

8 June 2013, 3:00pm, LPS seminar room

Topic: David Ellerman on the objective indefiniteness interpretation of quantum mechanics

Readings: Please read David's paper, if you have the stamina. You can also look at his slides. Only the first half or so are for the talk, the rest are 'appendices' designed for people who would like to go beyond the slides, but don't the time for the paper. Here is a one-page precis of the the paper.

11 May 2013, 3:00pm, LPS seminar room

Topic: Oliver Pooley on general covariance

Readings: Please read Oliver's published paper as preparation for the meeting. You may also want to read a paper by Domenico Giulini as background. I may also distribute a handout detailing Oliver's recent work on this topic.

4-5 May 2013 (cross-listed event)

Category-Theoretic Foundations of Mathematics Workshop

For more information on this event hosted by LPS Irvine, visit the workshop website.

27 April 2013, 3:00pm, LPS seminar room

Topic: Sam Fletcher: "Physicality and topological stability in relativity theory"

Readings: Please read Sam's paper in advance of the meeting.

2 March 2013, 2:00pm, LPS seminar room

Topic: Ken Wharton: "Realistic Lagrangian-only quantum theory"

Readings: Please read Ken's paper in advance of the meeting. Here is an abstract of the main ideas of the paper.

23 February 2013, 3:00pm, LPS seminar room

Topic: Dean Rickles on Eddington's physics

Readings: Please read Dean's paper that I sent around in advance of the meeting.

12 January 2013, 3:00pm, LPS seminar room

Topic: Carolyn Brighouse on the dimension of space

Readings: Please read Carolyn's article in advance of the meeting.

8 December 2012, 3:00pm, LPS seminar room

Topic: Bryan Roberts on Curie's principle

Readings: Please read Bryan's article in advance of the meeting.

10 November 2012, 3:00pm, LPS seminar room

Topic: Jeremy Butterfield: "Which quantum field theories really exist?" (Joint work with Nazim Bouatta)

Readings: Please read Jeremy's article (jointly written with Nazim Bouatta) in advance of the meeting, focusing on Section 2.2.1. Jeremy has also prepared a handout and some slides for the meeting.

20 October 2012, 3:00pm, LPS seminar room

Topic: Benjamin Feintzeig on hidden variables and commutativity in quantum mechanics

Readings: Please read Ben's paper in advance of the meeting.

Future Dates to be Saved

We will have no more meetings this academic year. See you in Fall 2013!

For meetings in previous years, please see the sidebar.

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