[PhilPhys] Lisbon Philosophy of Physics Seminars: Cristian Mariani (8 June on Zoom)

[Andrea Oldofredi]

Dear List Members,

On Wednesday 8 June *Cristian Mariani* (University of Barcelona) will give
a talk titled "Does the Primitive Ontology of GRW rest on Shaky Ground?"
(abstract below).

The series of online seminars is organized in the context of the activities
of the LanCog Research Group <https://cful.letras.ulisboa.pt/lancog/> at
the Centre of Philosophy of the University of Lisbon, and will focus on the
foundations of quantum and spacetime physics.

The meeting will be online on Zoom (17:00-19:00 CEST). If you have not
registered yet, you can do so here
<https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1pe9-CUZwKFA_uS0j-wD7bRQatIO-SdzxBqKlmkM6XOY/edit?usp=drive_web>
.

You can address any question to Andrea Oldofredi (
aoldofredi at letras.ulisboa.pt).

ABSTRACT:

The notion of Primitive Ontology (PO) has recently received a great deal of
attention in the quantum foundations literature. The PO is the fundamental
ontology posited by a certain theory, what is out there in the world which
makes the predictions of theory true. Can we make sense of the idea that
the PO is indeterminate? And if we do, would this idea be explanatory
useful in some way, or would it simply lead us too far from the very
reasons we had to posit a PO in the first place? As I will show in this
paper, these issues become of crucial importance when it comes to
understanding what the ontology of the Mass Density approach to GRW (GRWm)
ultimately looks like. Proponents of the PO are never explicit in claiming
that the determinacy is a requirement for the notion, yet arguably this is
entailed by one of the criteria for a suitable PO, namely its being always
well defined in every point in 3D space. I will argue that this requirement
is however not satisfied in GRWm. The conclusion I will draw is that the
notion of indeterminate PO should be taken seriously, for it is suggested
by one the major interpretations of quantum mechanics.


Best regards,

Andrea Oldofredi

----------

Dr. Andrea Oldofredi

Postdoc FCT

Internet Resources:
https://unil.academia.edu/AndreaOldofredi
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Andrea_Oldofredi

Mailing Address:
University of Lisbon
Centre of Philosophy
Alameda da Universidade, 1600-214, Lisbon
Portugal
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