Determinism and Indeterminism: From Physics to Philosophy

(August 5-9, 2013 – Universidad Austral)

 

The following activities took place throughout the week:

• Two plenary lectures open to the general public: 1) “What kind of indeterminism does quantum mechanics propose?”, Prof. Olimpia Lombardi, University of Buenos Aires. 2) “The many faces of determinism”Prof. Juan Arana, University of Seville.
• A ten-hour seminar for university professors: "Determinism and Indeterminism. The historical context of the debate"Prof. Juan Arana, University of Seville.
• A workshop for trained researchers who are currently working on the topic from the perspectives of science, philosophy, or theology.

 

Workshop

Day One: Philosophy of Science. Philosophy Questions Physics

1. Does physics distinguish between these notions: determinism, lawfulness, predictability, necessity, causality, fatalism? If so, how? How does philosophy contribute to elucidating these distinctions?

Speakers:
Philosophy: Héctor Velázquez, Pan-American University, Mexico.
Physics: Santiago Collado, University of Navarra, Spain.

Bibliography:
BUTTERFIELD, J. (1998, 2005). “Determinism and indeterminism”. In E. Craig (Ed.), Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. London: Routledge.

BISHOP, RC (2006), “Determinism and Indeterminism”. In D. M. Borchert (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Second Edition. Farmington Hills-MI: Macmillian Reference, Vol. 29–35 [preprint].

HITCHCOCK, C. (2007) “Three concepts of causation”. Philosophy Compass, 2/3, pp. 508-516.

LOEWER, B. (2008) “Determinism”. In S. Psillos & M. Curd (Eds.), The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Science. Abingdom: Routledge, pp. 327-336.

FOSTER, M. (2008) “Prediction”. In S. Psillos & M. Curd (Eds.), The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Science. Abingdom: Routledge, pp. 405-413.

CARROLL, JW (2012) “Laws of Nature”. In EN Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

2. Does the predicate 'deterministic' apply to scientific theories, knowledge, or nature? If it applies to several of these, how are the different types of determinism related? Do they imply one another?

Speakers:
Philosophy: Claudia Vanney, Universidad Austral, Argentina.
Physics: Alan Heiblum, ANPCyT-Universidad Austral, Argentina.

Bibliography:
EARMAN, J. (2004) “Determinism: What we have learned and what we still don't know”. In JK Campbell, M. O'Rourke & D. Shier (Eds.), Freedom and Determinism, Cambridge-MA: MIT Press, pp. 21-46 [preprint].

CARTWRIGHT, N. & EFSTATHIOU, S. (2011) “Hunting causes and using them: Is there no bridge from here to there?”,International Studies in the Philosophy of Science, 25/3, pp. 223-241.

ANDERSEN, H. (2011) “Mechanism, laws, and regularities”, Philosophy of Science, 78, pp. 325-331.

 

 

Second day: Philosophy of Physics. Physics asks Philosophy questions.

3. Do the most recent interpretations of quantum mechanics favor epistemological or ontological indeterminism? More specifically, do modal interpretations introduce ontological indeterminism into microphysics, or are the probabilities of quantum mechanics merely a sign of our ignorance?

Speakers:
Physics: Leonardo Vanni, University of Buenos Aires, National University of General Sarmiento, Argentina.
Philosophy: Sebastián Fortín, CONICET-University of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Bibliography:
DIEKS, D. (2007) “Probability in modal interpretations of quantum mechanics”, Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, 19 (2007), pp. 292-310 [preprint].

ARDENGHI, JS & LOMBARDI, O. (2011) “The Modal-Hamiltonian Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics as a Kind of “Atomic” Interpretation”, Physics Research International, vol. 2011, Article ID 379604, 10 pages, 2011. doi:10.1155/2011/379604 [open access article].

GOLDSTEIN, S. (2013) “Bohmian Mechanics”. In EN Zalta (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2013 Edition) [preprint] [read online].

LOMBARDI, O. & DIEKS, D. (2012) “Modal Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics”. In EN Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy [open access article].

4. Do chaotic phenomena allow for the coexistence of determinism and indeterminism at different levels or strata of reality? If so, how can this coexistence be explained?

Speakers:
Physics: Olimpia Lombardi, CONICET-University of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Philosophy: Rafael Martinez, Pontificia Università della Santa Croce, Italy.

Bibliography:
LOMBARDI, O. (2002) “Determinism, internalism and objectivity”. In H. Atmanspacher & R. Bishop (Eds.), Between Chance and Choice: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Determinism, Thorverton: Imprint-Academic, pp. 75-87.

BISHOP, RC (2005) “Anvil or onion? Determinism as a layered concept”, Knowledge, 63, pp. 55-71 [preprint].

BATITSKY, V. & DOMOTOR, Z. (2007) “When good theories make bad predictions”, Synthesis, 157/1, pp. 79-103.

 

 

Day Three: Physics & Religion. Physics Asks Theology Questions

5. Are all cosmological models compatible with divine creation, or do some models exclude it? In particular, are deterministic cosmological models without an initial singularity compatible with the doctrine of creation?

Speakers:
Physics: Alejandro González Sánchez, Autonomous University of Zacatecas, Mexico.
Philosophy: Francisco Soler, Technische Universität Dortmund (Germany) / University of Seville (Spain).

Bibliography:
TANZELLA-NITTI, G. (2005) “The creation of the universe: philosophy, science and theology”. In Velázquez, H. (Ed.), Origin, nature and knowledge of the universe: an interdisciplinary approach. Cuadernos de Anuario Filosófico, Serie Universitaria, nº 171, pp. 113-151[preprint].

SOLER GIL, F. (2005) “Physical cosmology as a support for natural theology”. In Soler Gil, F (Ed.), “God and modern cosmologies”, Madrid: BAC, pp. 223-250.

McCABE, G. “The non-unique Universe”, Foundation of Physics, (2010) 40, pp. 629-637 [preprint].

6. Must physics recognize an ontological indeterminism in order to admit the possibility of divine action in nature?

Speakers:
Physics: Alejandro Clausse, CONICET-National University of the Center of the Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Philosophy: Ignacio Silva, University of Oxford, United Kingdom.

Bibliography:

SILVA, I. (2013), “Revisiting Aquinas on Providence and Rising to the Contemporary Challenge of Divine Action in Nature” [preprint].

RUSSELL, RJ (2009), “Quantum Physics and the Theology of Non‐Interventionist Objective Divine Action”. In P. Clayton (ed.),The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Science. Oxford: Oxford University Press [preprint].