[PhilPhys] conference on physics and phenomenology of time

[Mauro Dorato]

 The Phenomenology and the Physics of Time Rome 6th - 7th of April, Aula
Verra (ground floor), Faculty of Arts (ex Facoltà di Lettere) via Ostiense
234, 00146, Rome.



*Tentative schedules*





6th of April



9:10 – 10: Claudio Calosi, (University of Neuchâtel),

*Locational Problems for Locational Endurantism*



*Abstract: *The paper presents a new argument against *Locational
Endurantism*. The argument rests on a tension between two of its
commitments, i.e. the failure of additivity of location and the requirement
that enduring objects are exactly located at instantaneous maximal slices
of their paths.



10:00 – 10:50 Orly Shenker (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

*The Past Hypothesis and the Psychological Arrow of Time*

It is well known that *if* mechanics (together with auxiliary assumptions
concerning measure and Hamiltonian,) entails that entropy is likely to
increase towards the future then, due to the time-symmetry of classical
mechanics, it is equally likely to increase towards the past. The
consequence, that the system is, at any moment, in minimum entropy, makes
the theory internally incoherent. Feynman proposed to solve this problem by
adding the hypothesis that in the past the universe was in a lower entropy
state. This past hypothesis is sometimes taken to explain also the
psychological arrow of time, namely, the psychological fact that we have an
experience of a temporal direction. In this paper we examine what it would
take to account for the psychological facts in this way. We emphasize that
the global hypothesis does not account for the psychological arrow, and
examine other problems that such an account raises.



break



11:10 – 12:00 Marc Wittmann (Institut für Grenzgebiete der Psychologie und
Psychohygiene*; *Freiburg)



*Embodied time: How the body and brain create our feeling for duration*



12:00 – 12:50  Francesco Orilia (Università di Macerata)

*Presentism vs. eternalism: moral and existential aspects.*



Discussion 12:50-13:20



lunch



15:30 – 16:20   Yuval Dolev (Bar-Hillan University)



*Physics' Silence on Time*

*Abstract*

In this paper I argue that physics is, always was, and probably always will
be voiceless with respect to tense and passage, and that, therefore, if, as
I believe, tense and passage are the essence of time, physics' contribution
to our understanding of time can only be limited. The argument, in a
nutshell, is that if "physics has no possibility of expression for the
Now", to quote Einstein, then it cannot add anything to the study of tense
and passage, and specifically, cannot add anything to the debate between
deniers and affirmers of the existence or reality of tense and passage.
Since relativity theory did not equip physics with a new language with
which to speak of tense and passage, I draw the further conclusion that
relativity theory has not generated the revolution to our conception of
time that is attributed to it. In the last section I discuss the
motivations behind the continued but misguided attempts to integrate tense
into a relativistic setting, and assess the manners in which relativity
theory has nevertheless enhanced, albeit indirectly, our understanding of
tense and passage.





16:20 – 17:10   Carl Hoefer (ICREA, University of Barcelona)

*Physics and Temporal Becoming.*



break



17.40 – 18:30   Oliver Pooley (Oriol College Oxford)

*Relativistic growing block*







Discussion



7th of April



9:00 – 9:50 Christian Wüthrich (University of Geneva),

*The (a)temporal emergence of spacetime*



9:50 – 10:40 Daniele Oriti  (Max Planck Institute Potsdam)

*An emergent universe without fundamental space and time*



break



11:00 – 11:50 Meir Hemmo (University of Haifa)



*Maxwell Demon and Quantum Mechanics*

We show that a Maxwellian Demon is compatible with quantum statistical
mechanics. We then consider what the Demon implies with respect to the
nature of statistical mechanics (quantum and classical) and in particular
its probabilistic content. Our analysis questions the status of
counterfactual worlds as grounding the probabilistic statements of the
theory. We briefly describe an alternative way of constructing probability
in statistical mechanics. We question the explanatory power of the
statistical mechanical recovery of the laws of thermodynamics, since this
recovery can only be achieved by adding auxiliary assumptions that are not
dictated by the principles of mechanics.  11:50-13:00 Discussion



lunch





-- 
Mauro Dorato
Professor of Philosophy of Science
Department of Philosophy, Communication and Media Studies, room 2.15
Roma 3 University, Via Ostiense 234, 00146 Rome, Italy, tel +39 0657338354
fax +39 06 57.33.83.40
http://www.springer.com/philosophy/epistemology+and+philosophy+of+science/journal/13194
http://www.filcospe.it/index.php/persone/docenti/67-docenti/mdorato/442-curriculum-vitae-dorato

Quaedam ergo nos magis torquent quam debent, quaedam ante torquent quam
debent, quaedam torquent cum omnino non debeant (Seneca, Liber II, Epistula
XIII)
'Quaeris' inquit 'quid profecerim? amicus esse mihi coepi.' Multum
profecit: numquam erit solus. Scito esse hunc amicum omnibus. Vale. (liber
1, epistula 6
 "Humanas actiones non ridere, non lugere, neque detestari, sed
intelligere" (Baruch Spinoza)
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