Third International Conference on the Nature and Ontology of Spacetime


Conference Program*

(PDF version of the Conference Program)

Invited Talks - 50 min; question period - 20 min
Session Talks - 40 min; question period - 10 min
All rooms are equipped with (i) overhead projectors and (ii) computers and projectors for PowerPoint presentations


Friday, June 13, 2008

8:00 - Registration

8:45 - 9:00 Welcome Remarks

Chair: Christian Wuethrich (Department of Philosophy, University of California, San Diego)

9:00 - 10:10 Peter Minkowski (Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Bern) - Room H 767 (see map)
On Heraklitean Space-time

10:10 - 10:40 Coffee break - Room H 763

 
Session I - Room H 767
 
Session II - H 760
Chair: Christian Wuethrich (Department of Philosophy, University of California, San Diego)

10:40 - Dennis Dieks (Department of History and Foundations of Science, Utrecht University)
The Adolescence of Relativity: From Einstein to Minkowski


11:30 - Michel Janssen and Robert Rynasiewicz (University of Minnesota and Johns Hopkins University)
Minkowski and the development of relativistic mechanics


12:20 - Joseph K. Cosgrove (Department of Philosophy, Providence College)
Husserl, Jacob Klein, and Minkowski Space-Time

13:10 - 14:30 Lunch break

Chair: Paul O'Hara (Department of Mathematics, Northeastern Illinois University)

10:40 - Wolfgang Pietsch (Department of Philosophy of Science, Universität Augsburg)
Reversibility reconsidered – a role for history


11:30 - Eleanor Knox (New College, Oxford University)
General Relativity by another name? A look at Teleparallel Gravity


12:20 - Hanoch Ben-Yami (Central European University)
Bacward-light-cone simultaneity, with special application to the twin paradox

13:10 - 14:30 Lunch break


Chair: John Corbett (Department of Mathematics, Macquarie University, Australia)

14:30 - 15:40 Leo Corry (Cohn Institute for History and Philosophy of Science, Tel-Aviv University)
Hermann Minkowski and Relativity: Geometry and Axiomatics

15:40 - 16:10 Coffee break

 
Session I - Room H 767
 
Session II - H 760
Chair: John Corbett (Department of Mathematics, Macquarie University, Australia)

16:10 - John Earman (Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh)
Reassessing the Prospects of C. D. Broad's Growing Block Model of the Universe

17:00 - Vesselin Petkov (Concordia University)
Can the Growing Block Model of the Universe Save the Objectivity of Becoming?

17:50 - Daniel Peterson and Michael Silberstein (Swarthmore College and Department of Philosophy, Elizabethtown College)
Relativity of Simultaneity and Eternalism: In Defense of Blockworld
Chair: Edward Slowik (Department of Philosophy, Winona State University)

16:10 - Erik Curiel
On the Existence of Spacetime Structure

17:00 - Gordon Belot (Department of Philosophy, New York University)
Geometric Possibility

17:50 - Mark Shumelda (Department of Philosophy, University of Toronto)
Not the hole story: relationalism and loop quantum gravity

18:45 - Reception - Room H 763



Saturday, June 14, 2008

Chair: Maureen Donnelly (Department of Philosophy, University at Buffalo)

9:00 - 10:10 John D. Norton (Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh) - Room H 767
Einstein Discovering Special Relativity

10:10 - 10:40 Coffee break

 
Session I - Room H 767
 
Session II - H 760
Chair: Maureen Donnelly (Department of Philosophy, University at Buffalo)

10:40 - Richard T. W. Arthur (Department of Philosophy, McMaster University)
Minkowski's Proper Time and the Clock Hypothesis

11:30 - Mauro Dorato (Department of Philosophy, University of Rome Three)
Should we represent the experienced present in Minkowski spacetime?

12:20 - Yuri Balashov (Department of Philosophy, University of Georgia)
Coexistence in Minkowski Spacetime


13:10 - 14:30 Lunch break

Chair: W.M. Stuckey (Department of Physics, Elizabethtown College)

14:30 - Graham Nerlich (University of Adelaide)
Why spacetime is not a hidden cause: a realist story

15:20 - Robert DiSalle (Department of Philosophy, University of Western Ontario)
Minkowski's space-time and the interpretation of physical theory

16:10 - 16:40 Coffee break

16:40 - Nick Huggett (Department of Philosophy, University of Illinois at Chicago)
(Again) A Philosopher Looks at String Theory

17:30 - Christian Wuethrich (Department of Philosophy, University of California, San Diego)
No presentism in quantum gravity
Chair: James Overduin (Gravity Probe B Theory Group, Stanford University)

10:40 - Alfonso Rueda (Department of Electrical Engineering, California State University Long Beach)
Inertia and the physical medium pervading Minkowski spacetime

11:30 - Paul O'Hara (Department of Mathematics, Northeastern Illinois University)
The Metrics of General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics

12:20 - John Corbett1, Thomas Durt2 (1Mathematics Department, Macquarie University, Australia; 2TENA-TONA Free University of Brussels)
Quantum real number Minkowski spacetime


13:10 - 14:30 Lunch break

Chair: Jonathan Bain (Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Polytechnic University, Brooklyn, New York)

14:30 - Stephen N. Lyle
Rigidity in Relativity

15:20 - Michael Ibison (Institute for Advanced Studies at Austin)
A New Case for Direct Action

16:10 - 16:40 Coffee break

16:40 - James Overduin (Gravity Probe B Theory Group, Stanford University)
The Experimental Verdict on Spacetime from Gravity Probe B

18:30 - Poster Session and Reception - Room H 763 (dimensions of the poster boards: 1.8 m x 1.2 m)



Sunday, June 15, 2008


Chair: Joseph K. Cosgrove (Department of Philosophy, Providence College)

9:00 - 10:10 William G. Unruh (Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of British Columbia)) - Room H 767
Minkowski Space-Time and Quantum Mechanics

10:10 - 10:40 Coffee break

 
Session I - Room H 767
 
Session II - H 760
Chair: Joseph K. Cosgrove (Department of Philosophy, Providence College)

10:40 - Hans H. Grelland (Quantum Chemistry and Physics, University of Agder)
Husserl, Einstein, Weyl, and the Concepts of Space, Time, and Space-Time

11:30 - Ronny Desmet (Center for Logic and Philosophy of Science, Vrije Universiteit Brussel)
About "Minkowski's Influence on Whitehead"

12:20 - James Mattingly (Philosophy Department, Georgetown University)
Weyl's refutation of conventionalism


13:10 - 14:30 Lunch break

Chair: Wolfgang Pietsch (Department of Philosophy of Science, Universität Augsburg)

14:30 - Flavia Padovani (Department of Philosophy, University of Geneva)
Topologies of Time in the 1920s: Reichenbach, Carnap, Lewin

15:20 - Edward Slowik (Department of Philosophy, Winona State University)
The fate of mathematical place: ontology, objectivity, and the theory of lived-space from Husserl to Casey

16:10 - 16:40 Coffee break

16:40 - Maureen Donnelly (Department of Philosophy, University at Buffalo)
Region-Relative Parthood

17:30 - Bradford Skow (Department of Philosophy, University of Massachusetts)
Local and Global Relativity Principles
Chair: Alfonso Rueda (Department of Electrical Engineering, California State University Long Beach)

10:40 - Jonathan Bain (Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Polytechnic University, Brooklyn, New York)
Relativity and Quantum Field Theory

11:30 - Michael Silberstein1 and W.M. Stuckey2 (1Department of Philosophy and 2Department of Physics, Elizabethtown College and Department of Physics, Elizabethtown College)
RBW: an Acausal Conspiracy Theory


13:10 - 14:30 Lunch break

Chair: Michael Ibison (Institute for Advanced Studies at Austin)

14:30 - Hilary Greaves (Philosophy Department, Rutgers University)
How can there be a CPT theorem?

15:20 - Juan Ferret (Department of Philosophy, University of Texas at El Paso)
The Impact of the Energy-Time Indeterminacy Relation on the Ontology of Spacetime

16:10 - 16:40 Coffee break

16:40 - Jan Faye (Department of Media, Cognition, and Communication, University of Copenhagen)
What Mirrors the Mirror? Space-Time Structure as an Abstract Entity

17:30 - Dennis Lehmkuhl (Oxford University)
Geometrization(s) of Matter


19:30 - Public Lecture - Room H 110

Organized by the International Society for the Advanced Study of Spacetime and the Montreal Inter-University Seminar on the History and Philosophy of Science.

Speaker: Vesselin Petkov (Concordia University)
Title: Spacetime and Reality: Hermann Minkowski's Discovery of Spacetime and its Implications for our Understanding of Reality


* The program takes into account the fact that some speakers cannot give their talks on given days.