[PhilPhys] Winner Announced 2022 Du Châtelet Prize in Philosophy of Physics

[Katherine Brading]

The winner of the 2022 Du Châtelet Prize in Philosophy of Physics is:

Ovidiu Babeș for his paper “Mixed Mathematics and Metaphysical Physics: Descartes and the Mechanics of the Flow of Water”

Congratulations Ovidiu!

Ovidiu’s paper investigates the complex interplay between physics and mechanics in Descartes’ quantitative explanation of the flow of water, showing the creativity in Descartes’s attempts to bridge the mechanical and the physical, and the difficulties that ensue for his natural philosophy.

Ovidiu is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Vrije University Brussels, working on a project about I<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/hiw.kuleuven.be/cmprpc/renew18__;!!OToaGQ!vrnAHGSbr8JnM8bS2PsEfIw-1AfpHrhJhdbgduiQrXxBhncir1AvpWyvcWEh4YOjCbH4PmgzJ9NMHUej0lnFg8lEFGQphbhO1unh$>saac Newton's reception in the 18th century<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/hiw.kuleuven.be/cmprpc/renew18__;!!OToaGQ!vrnAHGSbr8JnM8bS2PsEfIw-1AfpHrhJhdbgduiQrXxBhncir1AvpWyvcWEh4YOjCbH4PmgzJ9NMHUej0lnFg8lEFGQphbhO1unh$>. He defended his PhD in 2022 at the University of Bucharest with a dissertation on Descartes and mixed mathematics. More generally, his research deals with early modern philosophy and science.

The topic of this year’s prize was “Descartes’s Metaphysical Physics”, in honor of the 30th anniversary of Dan Garber’s highly influential book of that title. The committee was:

  *   Roger Ariew (Distinguished University Professor, University of South Florida)
  *   Dan Garber (A. Watson J. Armour III University Professor of Philosophy, Princeton University)
  *   Dana Jalobeanu (Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Bucharest, and Director of the ICUB-Humanities division of the Research Institute of the University of Bucharest)
  *   Alison Peterman (Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Rochester)
  *   Sophie Roux (Professor of History and Philosophy of Science, École normale supérieure, Paris)
A big thank you to the committee for all their work, and to all those who submitted such superb papers.

The Du Châtelet Prize in Philosophy of Physics is supported by Duke University in collaboration with Studies in History and Philosophy of Science.

Workshop

A workshop honoring this year’s prize winner, and including talks by members of the committee, will be held at Duke University on March 28-29, 2023. Registration for this workshop will open in the new year.

About the prize

The Du Châtelet Prize in Philosophy of Physics celebrates excellence in philosophy of physics and promotes breadth across the field both historically and philosophically. Each year, a prize committee of senior scholars in the field invites submissions on a particular topic. The prize winner receives feedback and support from the committee, and the paper is considered for publication in Studies. The goals of the prize are to support young scholars working in philosophy of physics, to strengthen the historical and philosophical breadth of the field, and to promote some of the very best work being done by students and junior scholars.

2021 Winners: Jamee Elder “The ‘Direct Detection’ of Gravitational Waves” and Miguel Ohnesorge “Pluralizing Measurement: Physical Geodesy's Measurement Problem and its Resolution”
Topic: Measurement practices in the physical sciences: correlation, calibration and stabilization
Committee: Alisa Bokulich, Hasok Chang, Daniel Mitchell, and Wendy Parker

2020 Winner: Joshua Eisenthal “Hertz’s Mechanics and a unitary notion of force”, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 90 226-234. 2021.
Topic: Mathematics as a tool of conceptual innovation in physical theory and/or experiment, 1780-1890.
Committee: Katherine Brading, Janet Folina, Doreen Fraser, Lydia Patton and Sheldon Smith

2019 Winner: Adwait Parker “Newton on Active and Passive Quantities of Matter”, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 84 1-11. 2020.
Topic: “How the parts of matter act on one another, as that issue stood at any time in the period 1680-1780”
Committee: Katherine Brading, Mary Domski, Andrew Janiak, Chris Smeenk, George Smith


For more information about the prize and the associated workshop, please contact Katherine Brading (katherine.brading at duke.edu<mailto:katherine.brading at duke.edu>).

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