[PhilPhys] Workshop "Spacetime is as spacetime does: pro and contra" (Florence June 9, 2023)

[emilia margoni]

*Spacetime is as spacetime does: pro and contra*

Firenze, 9 June 2023





Dear All,



In case someone might be interested, this is to inform you that the
Department of Humanities and Philosophy of the University of Florence will
host a one-day workshop titled “Spacetime is as spacetime does: *pro *and
*contra*” on June 9 (2023).



In what follows some details:



*Workshop Description*



A class of approaches to Quantum Gravity (QG) suggests that the fundamental
degrees of freedom are neither quantised continuum fields nor entities
characterizable in spatiotemporal terms (Oriti, 2017). In such theoretical
scenarios, an explanation for how the spatiotemporal structure of GR gets
recovered from this fundamentally non-spatiotemporal background needs to be
offered. Lam and Wüthrich (2018) have argued that spacetime functionalism
– the view according to which spacetime is functionally realised by a set
of underlying, more fundamental entities – is the path to go if one aims to
account for the emergence of spacetime. On this perspective, one has first
to pinpoint the functional role of spacetime, and then identify what plays
this specific functional role. On the one side, a recent attempt in this
direction is Huggett and Wüthrich’s (2021), who aim to apply it in the
context of three approaches to QG, that is, Causal Set Theory, Loop Quantum
Gravity, and String Theory. On the other side, a critical assessment of the
functionalist view in QG is provided in Le Bihan (2020). This workshop is
meant to investigate a set of issues related to spacetime functionalism,
thus exploring its *pro* and *contra*.



*References*



Huggett, N., Wüthrich, C. (2021). Out of Nowhere: Introduction: The
emergence of spacetime. arXiv:2101.06955 [physics.hist-ph].



Lam, V. and Wüthrich, C. (2018). Spacetime is as spacetime does. *Studies
in History and **Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and
Philosophy of Modern Physics* 64, 39-51.



Le Bihan, B. (2020). Spacetime emergence in quantum gravity: functionalism
and the hard problem. *Synthese*, 199: 371-393.



Oriti, D. (2017). Spacetime as a quantum many-body system. arXiv:1710.02807.



*Invited Speakers*: Nick Huggett, Baptiste Le Bihan, Daniele Oriti,
Christian Wüthrich



*Attendance*: Attendance is free of charge. Those you are interested in
participating are kindly asked to visit the workshop website
<https://sites.google.com/view/stisasstdoesproandcontra/home> and fill the
registration form



*Information*: All details are available on the workshop website
<https://sites.google.com/view/stisasstdoesproandcontra/home>. For any
further information, do not hesitate to contact emilia.margoni at phd.unipi.it



*Organizers*: Elena Castellani and Emilia Margoni



Best regards,



Elena Castellani and Emilia Margoni
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