Purpose

This workshop aims to explore the limits and aesthetics of physics in a broad sense. Topics to be addressed are the possible methodological, epistemological and ontological limits of physics, as well as various aspects of the aesthetics of physics - e.g. in relation to representation, motivation and understanding in science. Some talks will focus mostly on the (possible) limits of physics, whereas others will be primarily concerned with the aesthetics of physics. But the workshop will also address the possible connections between these themes. One such connection may be found in the fact that fundamental physics is concerned with the limits of the very small (particle physics) and the very large (cosmology). The study of such limits may invoke the aesthetic category of the sublime, which can be related to concepts like infinity, awe, wonder and - indeed - that which lies on the border, or perhaps even beyond, what can be grasped scientifically.  (see also Programme).

 

Confirmed speakers

Carlos Barceló (Physics, IAA Granada), Sixto Castro (Aesthetics, Valladolid), Catherine Elgin (Philosophy of science/aesthetics, Harvard), Carl Hoefer (Philosophy of science/physics, ICREA Barcelona), Giora Hon (History/Philosophy of Physics, Haifa), Ruth Lorand (Aesthetics, Haifa), Beatriz Ruiz-Granados (Cosmology, Tenerife), Mauricio Suárez (Philosophy of science/physics, Complutense Madrid), Adán Sus (Philosophy of science/physics, Valladolid), Henrik Zinkernagel (Philosophy of science/physics, Granada).