Physics and Philosophy of the Future: the Flow of Time between Physics and Metaphysics

Contribution List

1. On the Nature of the Future

Samuele Iaquinto (Milano Univ.)

11/07/2019, 14:30

The aim of this talk is to offer a critical overview of the current philosophical debate in the
philosophy of the future, stressing the close connections between physics and metaphysics. I will
discuss linear and branching-time models, underlining their relations with the debate on tense
realism, that is, the debate about whether the flow of time is a genuine feature of reality.

2. Time Travels between Physics and Philosophy

Giuliano Torrengo (Milano Univ.)

11/07/2019, 15:15

This talk is devoted to the main philosophical questions on time travel. It is usually held that the past
cannot the changed. But what about the future? I will argue that the answer crucially depends on
the hypothesis that reality contains a further temporal dimension, the so-called hypertime.

3. Time from Classical Relativistic Physics toward Quantum Gravity

Daniele Oriti (Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute))

11/07/2019, 16:30

I survey briefly the main lessons about the nature of physical time from (special
and general) relativistic physics. They amount to a progressive dismissal of
commonsensical assumptions about time and a difficult learning process about what
are its real physical features. I then outline how the search for a quantum theory
of gravity and spacetime is challenging, even more, our understanding of...

4. Discussion

11/07/2019, 17:30