The Completeness of Physics Saturday, May 12th, 2018, 2:30pm-4:30pm Past Event Watch the video » Science can stake its claim to truth on the evidence of its empirical success accounting for reality. Does it therefore follow, necessarily, that science can lay claim to its universality? Does reality cohere in such a way that we are ultimately seeking a reductionistic account of it in toto, as some would argue is promised by physics? Or is reality subject to multiple ontological levels, in the words of philosopher Nancy Cartwright, “a patchwork of laws,” opening the door to the disunity of, a plurality of, sciences? On the one hand, if one asserts that all of reality comes within the sweeping compass of a unified science, what, then, of the ontological and epistemological standing of the humanities? On the other hand, if not, does this rescue the humanities from the ascendancy of science, from the power of evidential, empirical veridicality, of a discipline founded on the phenomenal, over one founded on the noumenal? Will the sacred in human life dissolve in the solvent of the material commonality of all things? Or does the problem reside in the present evolution of our cognitive abilities limiting our grasp of some fundamental, lawful integration of reality? Participants: Joseph Kohn Professor Emeritus of Mathematics, Princeton University Joseph Kohn was born in Prague, on May 18, 1932. He emigrated to Ecuador in 1939 and to the US in 1945. There, he received his BS at MIT 1953, and his Ph.D. at Princeton, in 1956. He served as a Professor at Brandeis University 1958-1968 and at Princeton since 1968. Professor Kohn’s research regards the Theory… read more » Jonathan Kramnick Maynard Mack Professor of English, Yale University Jonathan Kramnick is Maynard Mack Professor of English at Yale University. His research and teaching is in eighteenth-century literature and philosophy, philosophical approaches to literature, and cognitive science and the arts. He is the author of three books. His new book, Paper Minds: Literature and the Ecology of Consciousness (Chicago, 2018), asks what distinctive knowledge… read more » Tim Maudlin Professor of Philosophy, New York University Tim Maudlin is Professor of Philosophy at New York University. He received his B. A. in Physics and Philosophy from Yale and his Ph.D. in History and Philosophy of Science from the University of Pittsburgh. His work centers on the interpretation of physical theory: how the mathematical structures used in physics may be understood as… read more » Priyamvada Natarajan Professor of Astronomy and of Physics, Yale University Priyamvada Natarajan’s research is focused on exotica in the Universe-dark matter, dark energy and black holes. She is noted for her key contributions to two of the most challenging problems in cosmology: mapping the distribution of dark matter and tracing the growth history of black holes. Her work using gravitational lensing has provided a deeper… read more » Carol Rovane Professor of Philosophy, Columbia University Carol Rovane is Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University, where she has served as Director of Graduate Studies and Chair of the Philosophy Department, and was recently awarded the Lenfest Distinguished Faculty Award. She publishes widely in the areas of metaphysics, philosophy of mind, philosophy of action and ethics, and has authored two books: The… read more »
Joseph Kohn Professor Emeritus of Mathematics, Princeton University Joseph Kohn was born in Prague, on May 18, 1932. He emigrated to Ecuador in 1939 and to the US in 1945. There, he received his BS at MIT 1953, and his Ph.D. at Princeton, in 1956. He served as a Professor at Brandeis University 1958-1968 and at Princeton since 1968. Professor Kohn’s research regards the Theory… read more »
Jonathan Kramnick Maynard Mack Professor of English, Yale University Jonathan Kramnick is Maynard Mack Professor of English at Yale University. His research and teaching is in eighteenth-century literature and philosophy, philosophical approaches to literature, and cognitive science and the arts. He is the author of three books. His new book, Paper Minds: Literature and the Ecology of Consciousness (Chicago, 2018), asks what distinctive knowledge… read more »
Tim Maudlin Professor of Philosophy, New York University Tim Maudlin is Professor of Philosophy at New York University. He received his B. A. in Physics and Philosophy from Yale and his Ph.D. in History and Philosophy of Science from the University of Pittsburgh. His work centers on the interpretation of physical theory: how the mathematical structures used in physics may be understood as… read more »
Priyamvada Natarajan Professor of Astronomy and of Physics, Yale University Priyamvada Natarajan’s research is focused on exotica in the Universe-dark matter, dark energy and black holes. She is noted for her key contributions to two of the most challenging problems in cosmology: mapping the distribution of dark matter and tracing the growth history of black holes. Her work using gravitational lensing has provided a deeper… read more »
Carol Rovane Professor of Philosophy, Columbia University Carol Rovane is Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University, where she has served as Director of Graduate Studies and Chair of the Philosophy Department, and was recently awarded the Lenfest Distinguished Faculty Award. She publishes widely in the areas of metaphysics, philosophy of mind, philosophy of action and ethics, and has authored two books: The… read more »
Despite a plethora of attempts (some of which are promising but, such as string theory, remain hypothetical because they are posited to reside at a level of scale beyond the reach of current technology), the long-standing challenge in developing a “theory of everything” is the mathematical incompatibility of relativity and quantum physics. Of the panelists listed, will Profs. Kohn and/or Natarajan be addressing this? Reply