[PhilPhys] Warsaw Spacetime Colloquium: Alastair Wilson (17 December on Zoom)

[Antonio Vassallo]

(With apologies for cross-posting)

On Friday, 17 December, Alastair Wilson (University of Birmingham) will
give a talk titled
"Fundamentality and Levels in Everettian Quantum Mechanics" (abstract
below).

The meeting will take place online on Zoom (17:00-19:00 CET). If you have
not registered yet, you can do so here <https://forms.gle/qpb8vVjtrF4y2nZ76>
.

The Colloquium is organized by the Philosophy of Physics Group
<https://ans.pw.edu.pl/Nauka/Zespoly-badawcze/Philosophy-of-Physics-Group>
at the Faculty of Administration and Social Sciences, Warsaw University of
Technology. The program for the winter semester can be found here
<https://ssqg.ans.pw.edu.pl/en/index.php/warsaw-spacetime-colloquium-2021-2022-online/>.
The videos of the previous meetings are available on YouTube
<https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLM-1yNCyvJJC0KUgEqXTsFA38luoSiqXo>.

You can address any inquiry to antonio.vassallo at pw.edu.pl.

ABSTRACT
Distinctions in fundamentality between different levels of description are
central to the viability of contemporary decoherence-based Everettian
quantum mechanics (EQM). This approach to quantum theory characteristically
combines a determinate fundamental reality (one universal wavefunction)
with an indeterminate emergent reality (multiple decoherent worlds). In
this talk I explore how the Everettian appeal to fundamentality and
emergence can be understood within existing metaphysical frameworks,
identify grounding and concept fundamentality as promising theoretical
tools, and use them to characterize a system of explanatory levels (with
associated laws of nature) for EQM. This Everettian level structure
encompasses and extends the ‘classical’ levels structure. The ‘classical’
levels of physics, chemistry, biology, etc. are recovered, but they are
emergent in character and potentially variable across Everett worlds. EQM
invokes an additional fundamental level, not present in the classical
levels picture, and a novel potential role for self-location in interlevel
metaphysics. When given a modal realist interpretation, EQM also makes
trouble for supervenience-based approaches to levels.
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