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

Thursday 11 Jul 2019, 14:30 → 18:30 Europe/Rome

INFN-LNF, Aula Salvini

Gennaro Corcella (LNF), Massimo Ferrario (LNF)

Aim of the meeting:

The concept of time has always been a topic of great interest and exploration in both physics and philosophy: time scans our experience of the world and is the foundation of our consciousness. We propose an afternoon to discuss the flow of time between physics and metaphysics with researchers active in both fields. In particular, from the philosophical viewpoint, we shall debate the nature of the future as well as possible time travels. Physics wise, it will be investigated the nature of time in relativity and how the quantum theory of gravity and space-time can help the understanding of the fundamental structure of the universe.

Program

 

Thursday July 11

 

14:30   Samuele Iaquinto (Milan Univ.)

"On the Nature of the Future" 

 

15:15   Giuliano Torrengo  (Milan Univ.) 

"Time Travels between Physics and Philosophy"

 

16:00 - 16:30   Coffee Break 

 

16:30   Daniele Oriti  (MPI Potsdam & LMU Munich) 

"Time from Classical Relativistic Physics toward Quantum Gravity"

17:30   Discussion

 

 

                              

14:30 → 15:15 On the Nature of the Future

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.

Speaker: Samuele Iaquinto (Milano Univ.)

Iaquinto.pdf

15:15 → 16:00 Time Travels between Physics and Philosophy

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.

Speaker: Giuliano Torrengo (Milano Univ.)

Torrengo _ INFN 2019.pdf

16:00 → 16:30 Coffee Break

16:30 → 17:30 Time from Classical Relativistic Physics toward Quantum Gravity

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 the
spatiotemporal aspects of the world, and suggests a more radical, complete
disappearance of time (and space) from the fundamental structure of the universe.
The conceptual challenges of this radical disappearance of time will be
emphasized, alongside the physical ones.

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

Talk-TimePhysics.pdf

17:30 → 18:30 Discussion