Philosophers of physics focus on a loosely connected set of questions about physics in general and specific physical theories. For instance:
- Is there a more fundamental theory explaining why quantum measurements seem to collapse the wave function? Some ideas here.
- How can the time-asymmetric laws of thermodynamics be derived (via statistical mechanics) from the time-symmetric laws of classical mechanics?
- Is there such a thing as space-time in which objects have a position, or are they just related to each other by distances? Some ideas here.
- Is the goal of science merely to produce models that make accurate predictions, or can we determine how nature really works?
- What is the right way to use experimental data to test multiverse theories?
- Is quantum field theory a theory of particles or fields (or both)?
Here are some additional links:
- Dave Baker’s Author Meets Physics Youtube channel discusses recent pieces in the philosophy of physics
- The recently consolidated Philosophy of Physics Society
- The Quantum Foundations lectures from Perimeter Institute’s PIRSA repository
- History and Philosophy of Physics preprints from the arXiv repository
- Western’s Philosophy of Logic, Math, and Physics (LMP) Graduate Conference.
- The European Physical Journal H website has papers on the history of physics by its own practitioners, co-edited by James Wells
- Harvard’s Foundations of Physics Youtube channel
- The Epistemological Letters journal’s digitized files played an important role in the 70s, disseminating work on hidden variables and Bell inequalities.
- Christine Aidala’s and Gabriele Carcassi’s Assumptions of Physics project
Contact
Email Francisco Calderón (fcalder@umich.edu) to join our mailing list, fomp.fomp@umich.edu.
University of Michigan affiliates with a umich.edu email can also add themselves to the mailing list.