Warsaw Spacetime Colloquium #4 - David Albert (2021/12/03)
Channel: International Center for Formal Ontology
Date: 2021-12-06

Title: Physical Laws and Physical Things

Chair: Antonio Vassallo

Abstract: I will consider several strategies for absorbing unwanted pieces of concrete physical ontology (for example: absolute/substantival Newtonian space, Maxwellian Electromagnetic fields, and especially and particularly quantum-mechanical wave-functions) into the metaphysical category of Laws.  I will argue that these strategies work well for the case of Newtonian absolute space - but that they work poorly for the case of quantum-mechanical wave-functions.
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The Colloquium's goal is to provide a window into the state-of-the-art in the foundations of spacetime physics. It brings together top-level philosophers and physicists willing to share their current research with an international audience. The Colloquium is organized by the Philosophy of Physics Group at the International Center for Formal Ontology, Faculty of Administration and Social Sciences, Warsaw University of Technology.