[PhilPhys] Warsaw Spacetime Colloquium: Vera Matarese (22 January on Zoom)

[Antonio Vassallo]

(With apologies for cross-posting)

On Friday, 22 January, Vera Matarese (University of Bern) will give a talk
entitled “Space the many substances” (abstract below).

The meeting will take place online on Zoom (16:00-18:00 CET). If you have
not registered yet, you can do so by sending a message to
antonio.vassallo at pw.edu.pl.

The Colloquium is organized by the Philosophy of Physics Group
<https://icfo.ans.pw.edu.pl/en/?page_id=3168> at the International Center
for Formal Ontology (Warsaw University of Technology). The recordings of
the previous meetings are available on the ICFO's YouTube channel
<https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLM-1yNCyvJJAfiq7LDFjfYc1I5OOxhJ1A>.

ABSTRACT
The view that loop quantum gravity’s spin-networks represent concrete atoms
of space is proposed in Vassallo & Esfeld (2014), which adopts a primitive
ontology approach to spacetime. Rovelli (2015), on the contrary, warns
against this literal interpretation, and regards the ‘chunks’ of space
represented by spin-networks as ‘modes of interactions’. In my talk, I will
not engage in the legitimacy of the interpretation of spin-networks as
concrete atoms of space from a physical perspective. I will rather spell
out the metaphysical advantages and disadvantages of endorsing such a view
and discuss conceptual issues by drawing on the metaphysical debate on the
atomistic view of spacetime. My conclusion will be that the loop quantum
gravity’s discrete model of space, according to which space is a collection
of many substances—‘the atoms of space’—has certain metaphysically
advantageous consequences that have been hitherto overlooked.
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