Call for Participation: The Physics of Society Workshop, 22 - 23 July 2016 at LMU Munich
The Munich
Center for Mathematical Philosophy invites participation for the
following event: The Physics of Society: Philosophy of Econophysics
and Complex Social Systems
MCMP, LMU Munich
July 22-23, 2016
Econophysics is a new and
exciting cross-disciplinary research field involving the
applications of techniques from statistical physics and complex
systems theory to economic systems. In particular, econophysics
models have been successfully applied to recover certain 'stylised
facts’ about financial markets and about inequality in income
distributions. There are a number of interesting and important
methodological questions relating to the foundations of
econophysics, and to the treatment of social systems as complex
systems in general. For example: Are the idealisations and
abstractions used in econophysics models justified in the same way
as the analogous idealisations in statistical physics models? What
do philosophical accounts of explanation say about the putative
explanation of the stylised facts by econophysics models? How are
econophysics models relevant to debates about emergence and
universality? How should we interpret the presence of power laws
in economic data? What is the role of information and entropy in
the modelling of economic systems?
This workshop will bring
together complex systems scientists, econophysicists, economists,
and philosophers of science to explore some of the interesting
methodological questions raised by econophysics and related
fields.
Attendance is free, but please signal your intention to attend by
emailing seamus.bradley@lmu.de