CfP for 2nd Annual Phenomenological Approaches to Physics Conference - Quantum Mechanics: Paradigm or Ontology of Nature?
2nd Annual Phenomenological Approaches to Physics
Conference. Quantum Mechanics: Paradigm or Ontology of Nature?
SEPTEMBER 26-28, 2019. STONY BROOK UNIVERSITY
Recently, a number of phenomenologically inspired thinkers
have devoted attention to quantum mechanics. For these thinkers, quantum
mechanics brings attention to the ways that scientific phenomena are produced
within subjective frames of knowledge and experimentation.
A persistent question for these
interpretations is whether the mathematical formalism and experimental data of
quantum mechanics represent reality as it is ‘in itself,’ or whether they
constitute merely subjective beliefs and models based on the
appearing of certain kinds of phenomena. Some philosophers of science struggle
to normalize issues of quantum physics in terms of traditional realisms that
present quantum phenomena as indications of a need for an entirely new ontology
of nature. On the other hand, others resist these ontological speculations.
Following in the steps of physicists like Bohr, these interpretations take
quantum phenomena to demonstrate nothing but the predictive power of
instrumental models given within a still ‘classical’ frame. Still other
interpretations attempt to balance subjective belief and ontological
implication. Quantum Bayesianism, for instance, places the subject’s beliefs at
the heart of reflection on quantum phenomena, despite claiming to hold to a
‘participatory realism.’
We are interested in papers that explore the conflicts
between ontological and non-ontological interpretations of quantum physics,
particularly from a phenomenological perspective. We take the debates over the
ontological significance of quantum mechanics to draw attention to the role of
subjective interpretation and conceptual framing in scientific experimentation.
In part, these debates reflect conflicts over the role of the subject in
registering quantum phenomena through various instruments and conceptual
apparatuses. How does reflection on the subjective conditions of knowledge
making, including conceptual paradigms and pre-scientific language, affect the
‘frame’ in which quantum phenomena appear? Does the subjective ‘frame’ reveal
an inability for our models to reflect reality ‘in itself,’ or is the subject a
part of a reality that is quantum ‘all the way up?’ More generally, is a
phenomenological perspective on quantum phenomena compatible with various species
of quantum realisms?
We are open to papers that engage the problems above, in
addition to the following themes:
- The influence of philosophy, especially phenomenology, on Bohr, Heisenberg, and Schrödinger
- The role of the pre-theoretical lifeworld in scientific practice and theory
- How language, tools, and theory ‘frame’ the appearing of quantum phenomena
- Competing standards of objectivity and subjectivity in realist and anti-realist interpretations of quantum mechanics
- Differences in method and theory in phenomenological versus naturalistic interpretations of quantum phenomena
- Quantum mechanics through the perspective of phenomenologists including Husserl, Heidegger, and Merleau-Ponty
- Challenges that quantum mechanics pose to phenomenological inquiry
Women, minorities, people with disabilities, and members
of other underrepresented groups are highly encouraged to apply.
WE REQUEST ABSTRACTS
BETWEEN 500 AND 750 WORDS IN LENGTH.
PLEASE SUBMIT ALL ABSTRACTS BY MAY 6TH TO
Keynote Speakers
·
Michel Bitbol | French researcher
in philosophy of science, and "Directeur de recherche" at CNRS,
previously in the Centre de Recherche en Epistémologie Appliquée (CREA) of
École polytechnique in Paris, France. A prolific author and editor, Bitbol is
also a member of Archives Husserl, Ecole Normale Superieure.
·
Michael Epperson | Author of Quantum Mechanics and the Philosophy of Alfred North
Whitehead; Research professor and founding director of the Center for Philosophy and the
Natural Sciences at California State University, Sacramento, and the
founding director of the university's History and
Philosophy of Science Program.
· Harald A. Wiltsche | P.I. of the research
project Intentionality and Symbolic Construction at the University of
Graz, Austria.