Second International Conference on the Ontology of Spacetime


Conference Program*

(PDF version of the Conference Program)

Session Talks - 45 min; question period - 15 min
All rooms are equipped with (i) overhead projectors and (ii) computers and projectors for PowerPoint presentations


Friday, June 9, 2006

8:00 - Registration

8:45 - 9:00 Welcome Remarks

Chair: Robert Rynasiewicz (Department of Philosophy, Johns Hopkins University)

9:00 - 10:30 Robert P. Geroch (Department of Physics, University of Chicago) - Room H 767 (see map)
Whither Determinism?

10:30 - 11:00 Coffee break

 
Session I - Room H 767
 
Session II - H 760
Chair: Robert Rynasiewicz (Department of Philosophy, Johns Hopkins University)

11:00 - Steven Savitt (Department of Philosophy, University of British Columbia)
Time in the Special Theory of Relativity


12:00 - Mauro Dorato (Department of Philosophy, University of Rome Three)
Is Structural Spacetime Realism Relationism in disguise?

13:00 - 14:30 Lunch break

Chair: Peter Forrest (Department of Philosophy, The University of New England, Australia)

11:00 - Jan Faye (Department of Media, Cognition, and Communication; Section of Philosophy, University of Copenhagen)
Time, Abstracts, and Cosmology

12:00 - Edgar Eslava (Departmento de Filosofía, Universidad del Rosario, Colombia)
Two ways to miss a target: Time symmetry and the cosmological arrow of time

13:00 - 14:30 Lunch break


Chair: Richard T. W. Arthur (Department of Philosophy, McMaster University)

14:30 - 16:00 Robert Brandenberger (Department of Physics, McGill University)
A New View of Space from String Theory and String Cosmology

16:00 - 16:30 Coffee break

 
Session I - Room H 767
 
Session II - H 760
Chair: Richard T. W. Arthur (Department of Philosophy, McMaster University)

16:30 - Robert Rynasiewicz (Department of Philosophy, Johns Hopkins University)
Simultaneity in Spatially Closed Manifolds Admitting a Flat Lorentzian Metric

17:30 - Vesselin Petkov (Department of Philosophy, Science College, and Liberal Arts College, Concordia University)
One-way Velocity of Light, Conventionality of Simultaneity, Dimensionality, and Existence
Chair: Kent A. Peacock (Department of Philosophy, University of Lethbridge)

16:30 - Joy Christian (Perimeter Institute and University of Oxford)
Heraclitean Generalization of Special Relativity

17:30 - Ludwik Kostro (Department for Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science, University of Gdansk, Poland)
Ultrareferential physical space-time conceived as a new ether - the opinion of Albert Einstein

19:30 - Reception - Room H 763



Saturday, June 10, 2006

Chair: Carolyn Brighouse (Department of Philosophy, Occidental College)

9:00 - 10:30 Harvey Brown (Faculty of Philosophy, University of Oxford) - Room H 767
Why is relativity theory geometrical in nature?

10:30 - 11:00 Coffee break

 
Session I - Room H 767
 
Session II - H 760
Chair: Carolyn Brighouse (Department of Philosophy, Occidental College)


11:00 - John Earman (Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh)
Why Branching Spacetime Is a Bad Idea

12:00 - Storrs McCall (Department of Philosophy, McGill University)
Branching spacetime and a new interpretation of probability


13:00 - 14:30 Lunch break

Chair: Andrew Wayne (Department of Philosophy, University of Guelph)

14:30 - Robert DiSalle (Department of Philosophy, University of Western Ontario)
Space-time ontology after general relativity: metaphysical vs. methodological legacies

15:30 - Christopher Smeenk (Department of Philosophy, UCLA)
Gravitational Energy and Substantivalism

16:30 - 17:00 Coffee break

17:00 - Kent A. Peacock (Department of Philosophy, University of Lethbridge)
Quantum mechanics and the open future
Chair: Jan Faye (Department of Media, Cognition, and Communication; Section of Philosophy, University of Copenhagen)




12:00 - Yuri Balashov (Department of Philosophy, University of Georgia)
Enduring, Perduring and Exduring Objects in Spacetime


13:00 - 14:30 Lunch break

Chair: Yuri Balashov (Department of Philosophy, University of Georgia)

14:30 - Juan Ferret (Department of Philosophy, University of Texas at El Paso)
The Ontological Status of Entities in Canonical Approaches to Quantum Gravity

15:30 - Alexis de Saint-Ours (Philosophy Department, University of Paris VIII)
Relation and quantum gravity in the light of Simondon and Bachelard's philosophies

16:30 - 17:00 Coffee break

17:00 - Hans Westman (Perimeter Institute)
Events and observables in general relativity

19:00 - Poster Session and Reception - Room H 763



Sunday, June 11, 2006


 
Session I - Room H 767
 
Session II - H 760
Chair: Christopher Smeenk (Department of Philosophy, UCLA)

9:00 - Dennis Dieks (Department of History and Foundations of Science, Utrecht University)
Another look at the equivalence of frames of reference in General Relativity


10:00 - Gordon Belot (Department of Philosophy, New York University)
Artificial General Covariance and the Problem of Time

11:00 - 11:30 Coffee break

11:30 - Carolyn Brighouse (Department of Philosophy, Occidental College)
Understanding Indeterminism


12:30 - 14:00 Lunch break

Chair: Joy Christian (Perimeter Institute and University of Oxford)

14:00 - Oliver Pooley (Oriel College, Oxford University)
Background independence: What's special about general relativity?

15:00 - Dean Rickles (Department of Philosophy, University of Calgary)
Who is Afraid of Background Independence

16:00 - 16:30 Coffee break

16:30 - Peter Forrest (Department of Philosophy, The University of New England, Australia)
Who’s Afraid of Special Relativity?

17:30 - Richard T. W. Arthur (Department of Philosophy, McMaster University)
The Degeneracy of Time: Proper Time and Becoming in Einstein-Minkowski Spacetime
Chair: Juan Ferret (Department of Philosophy, University of Texas at El Paso)

9:00 - Jonathan Bain (Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Polytechnic University, Brooklyn, New York)
Condensed Matter Physics and the Nature of Spacetime

10:00 - Tomasz Bigaj (Institute of Philosophy, Warsaw University)
On EPR, Counterfactuals, and Relation Between Quantum Mechanics and Relativity

11:00 - 11:30 Coffee break

11:30 - Ioan Muntean (Department of Philosophy, University of California, San Diego)
Unification and explanation in Kaluza-Klein formalism


12:30 - 14:00 Lunch break

Chair: Hans Westman (Perimeter Institute)

14:00 - Andrew Wayne (Department of Philosophy, University of Guelph)
Spacetime Relationalism and Classical Fields


15:00 - Bradford Skow (Department of Philosophy, New York University)
Extrinsic Temporal Metrics

16:00 - 16:30 Coffee break

16:30 - Vincent Lam (Université de Lausanne)
Singular structure and the nature of space-time


17:30 - Dennis Lehmkuhl (Oxford University)
Is spacetime a field?


19:30 - Public Lecture - Room H 110

Organized by the International Society for the Advanced Study of Spacetime and TaU, Time and Universe.

Speaker: Robert Geroch (Department of Physics, University of Chicago)
Title: Time Travel


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