During the fall semester, we will meet on Mondays from 2:30-3:30 in person (at 2246 Randall) and online. Contact Francisco Calderón for the Zoom link.
- September 12 – Sabine Hossenfelder, “Screams for explanation: finetuning and naturalness in the foundations of physics” (2019) [preprint]
- September 26 – Arianna Borrelli and Elena Castellani, “The Practice of Naturalness: A Historical-Philosophical Perspective” (2019) [preprint]
- Optional (for the historically curious with extra time) – Steven Weinberg’s “On the development of effective field theory” (2021)
- October 10 – Marian Gilton, “Could Charge and Mass be Universals? “(2020) [preprint]
- Optional (for the metaphysically curious with extra time) – Cian Dorr, “Natural Properties” (SEP entry, 2019)
- October 24 – David Wallace, “Naturalness and Emergence” (2019) [preprint]
- November 7 – No FOMP!
- November 21 – Peter Mättig and Michael Stöltzner, “Model choice and crucial tests. On the empirical epistemology of the Higgs discovery” (2019) [preprint]
- December 5 – No reading. Instead, we’ll have an informal (but still “official FOMP business”!) gathering where we can discuss each other’s interests and work. FOMP will come back in the Winter term.
During the winter semester, we will meet on Fridays from 2-3 in person (at 1164 Angell Hall) and online. Contact Francisco Calderón for the Zoom link.
- January 13 – Porter Williams, “Renormalization Group Methods” (2021) [preprint]
- Optional (for those curious about the physics in a language that is minimally technical) – Humphrey Maris and Leo Kadanoff “Teaching the renormalization group” (1978)
- January 27 – James Fraser, “Renormalization and the Formulation of Scientific Realism” (2018) [preprint]
- February 10 – Laura Ruetsche, “Renormalization Group Realism: The Ascent of Pessimism” (2018)
- February 24 – Jonathan Bain, “Why be Natural?” (2019)
- March 10 – Jill North, “A New Approach to the Relational–Substantival Debate” (2018) [preprint] – Only until §3.3
- March 17 – No reading. Instead, we’ll have an informal (but still “official FOMP business”!) gathering with prospective students in Philosophy and Physics.
- March 24 – Michael Miller, “Mathematical Structure and Empirical Content” (2021) [preprint]
- April 7 – James D. Wells, “Naturalness, Extra-Empirical Theory Assessments, and the Implications of Skepticism” (2019) [preprint]
- May 5 – Culminating event
Contact
Email Francisco Calderón ([email protected]) to join our mailing list, [email protected].
University of Michigan affiliates with a umich.edu email can also add themselves to the mailing list.