Dear Cambridge Philosophers of Science, Today is the first meeting for CamPoS. Unusually, it will meet at NOON at (us usual) HPS in seminar room 2 in the basement. Physicist Carlo Rovelli (Aix-Marseille University) will speak on 'What is quantum theory actually telling us about the world? The "relational" interpretation'. Rovelli is well known for his work on quantum gravity. He also effectively presents science to the public and defends the value of philosophy for science.
His abstract follows: 'What exactly is quantum theory is telling us about the world remains a hotly disputed topic among physicists and philosophers alike, with answers ranging from the existence of "many worlds" to a physical role for consciousness, from the existence of a priori unobservable facts, to the impossibility of a representation of physical reality. I briefly recall the terms of the discussion and present a perspective on the problem, emerged in the late 90's and denoted "Relational Interpretation", which is currently receiving increasing attention. It is a refinement of the original view emerged from Heisenberg and Bohr's the discussions, where key ambiguous terms like "observer" and "measurement" are replaced by plain notions like "physical system" and "interaction". I briefly discuss the philosophical implications of this reading of quantum theory.' Sincerely, J. Brian Pitts _____________________________________________________ To unsubscribe from the CamPhilEvents mailing list, or change your membership options, please visit the list information page: http://bit.ly/CamPhilEvents List archive: http://bit.ly/CamPhilEventsArchive Please note that CamPhilEvents doesn't accept email attachments. See the list information page for further details and suggested alternatives.