CfA Summer School The Aim and Structure of Cosmological Theory (Lugano, Switzerland)
by events.isfi＠usi.ch
The Summer School The Aim and Structure of Cosmological Theory will take place at USI, Lugano (Switzerland) from 23 to 27 June 2025 and will be taught by Chris Smeenk (Western Ontario) and Jim Weatherall (UC Irvine).
Deadline for applications: February 15, 2025
A number of challenging questions arise in contemporary cosmology, and philosophers can contribute constructively to answering them. In what sense is cosmology a “special case,” in terms of its aims, the nature of cosmological theories, or the ability to establish theories empirically? What, if anything, constrains theorizing about the early universe or regions of space and time that are beyond our observational ken? These and other questions will be tackled at the summer school, whose organizing theme is the forthcoming book by Smeenk & Weatherall The Aim and Structure of Cosmological Theory.
How to apply: Application is open to graduate students and early career researchers. Please send a copy of your CV, a one-page motivation letter and a reference letter from a supervisor or colleague to summerschool.isfi(a)usi.ch<mailto:summerschool.isfi@usi.ch>.
Accepted participants will have the possibility to send a short abstract for consideration to present some of their research at the summer school.
More information and provisional schedule: usi.ch/cosmology<https://www.usi.ch/it/formazione/apprendimento-permanente/summer-winter-s...>
Any questions: summerschool.isfi(a)usi.ch<mailto:summerschool.isfi@usi.ch>
2 months, 1 week
Master in Philosophy (USI, Switzerland)
by events.isfi＠usi.ch
Are you passionate about metaphysics, philosophy of physics, logic, or philosophy of mind?
The Master in Philosophy (MAP) at the University of Italian Switzerland could be the best way to pursue your academic ambitions!
The MAP is a 2-year English-taught Research Master focused on preparing students for applying to the most demanding PhD Philosophy programmes worldwide.
* Small interactive classes with outstanding professors<https://www.usi.ch/en/education/master/philosophy/professors>
* Individual tutor for regular meetings, feedback, and academic guidance
* Excellent PhD placement record
* Generous merit-based scholarships and student assistant positions
For more information about the MAP, visit usi.ch/map<http://usi.ch/map> or send an email to map(a)usi.ch<mailto:map@usi.ch>
2 months, 1 week
Reminder: "Lugano Philosophy Colloquia"
by events.isfi＠usi.ch
We are pleased to announce that on Thursday, December 12 at 5.30pm (CET) , Timothy Williamson (Oxford) will give the talk Temporal Logic as Metaphysics as part of the Lugano Philosophy Colloquia Fall 2024 organised by the Institute of Philosophy (ISFI) at USI.
This hybrid talk will take place in Room Multiuso, FTL Building (USI West Campus) and online via Zoom. If you are interested in joining online, please write to events.isfi(a)usi.ch.
Here is the abstract of the talk:
The talk will explain a logic-based approach to the metaphysics of time. As the title hints, it will be analogous to the logic-based approach to the metaphysics of possibility and necessity developed in Modal Logic as Metaphysics, though knowledge of that book will not be presupposed. I will discuss the purely logical sense of ‘exist’ and its interaction with temporal operators, the contrast between permanentism (the thesis that always everything is always something) and its denial, temporaryism (the thesis that sometimes something is sometimes nothing), and the logical nature of genuine change.
For more information: https://www.ftl.usi.ch/it/feeds/14780
3 months
CfA Summer School The Aim and Structure of Cosmological Theory (Lugano, Switzerland)
by events.isfi＠usi.ch
The Summer School The Aim and Structure of Cosmological Theory will take place at USI, Lugano (Switzerland) from 23 to 27 June 2025 and will be taught by Chris Smeenk (Western Ontario) and Jim Weatherall (UC Irvine).
Deadline for applications: February 15, 2025
A number of challenging questions arise in contemporary cosmology, and philosophers can contribute constructively to answering them. In what sense is cosmology a “special case,” in terms of its aims, the nature of cosmological theories, or the ability to establish theories empirically? What, if anything, constrains theorizing about the early universe or regions of space and time that are beyond our observational ken? These and other questions will be tackled at the summer school, whose organizing theme is the forthcoming book by Smeenk & Weatherall The Aim and Structure of Cosmological Theory.
How to apply: Application is open to graduate students and early career researchers. Please send a copy of your CV, a one-page motivation letter and a reference letter from a supervisor or colleague to summerschool.isfi(a)usi.ch<mailto:summerschool.isfi@usi.ch>.
Accepted participants will have the possibility to send a short abstract for consideration to present some of their research at the summer school.
More information and provisional schedule: usi.ch/cosmology<https://www.usi.ch/it/formazione/apprendimento-permanente/summer-winter-s...>
Any questions: summerschool.isfi(a)usi.ch<mailto:summerschool.isfi@usi.ch>
3 months
Master in Philosophy (USI, Switzerland)
by events.isfi＠usi.ch
Are you passionate about metaphysics, philosophy of physics, logic, or philosophy of mind?
The Master in Philosophy (MAP) at the University of Italian Switzerland could be the best way to pursue your academic ambitions!
The MAP is a 2-year English-taught Research Master focused on preparing students for applying to the most demanding PhD Philosophy programmes worldwide.
* Small interactive classes with outstanding professors<https://www.usi.ch/en/education/master/philosophy/professors>
* Individual tutor for regular meetings, feedback, and academic guidance
* Excellent PhD placement record
* Generous merit-based scholarships and student assistant positions
For more information about the MAP, visit usi.ch/map<http://usi.ch/map> or send an email to map(a)usi.ch<mailto:map@usi.ch>
3 months
Lugano Philosophy Colloquia (Hybrid)
by events.isfi＠usi.ch
We are pleased to announce that on Thursday, December 12 at 5.30pm (CET) , Timothy Williamson (Oxford) will give the talk Temporal Logic as Metaphysics as part of the Lugano Philosophy Colloquia Fall 2024 organised by the Institute of Philosophy (ISFI) at USI.
This hybrid talk will take place in Room Multiuso, FTL Building (USI West Campus) and online via Zoom. If you are interested in joining online, please write to events.isfi(a)usi.ch.
Here is the abstract of the talk:
The talk will explain a logic-based approach to the metaphysics of time. As the title hints, it will be analogous to the logic-based approach to the metaphysics of possibility and necessity developed in Modal Logic as Metaphysics, though knowledge of that book will not be presupposed. I will discuss the purely logical sense of ‘exist’ and its interaction with temporal operators, the contrast between permanentism (the thesis that always everything is always something) and its denial, temporaryism (the thesis that sometimes something is sometimes nothing), and the logical nature of genuine change.
For more information: https://www.ftl.usi.ch/it/feeds/14780
3 months
Timothy Williamson Open Lecture on Higher-order Metaphysics
by events.isfi＠usi.ch
We are happy to invite you to our open lecture on December 10th from 4:30 pm to 6:00 pm CET
The open lecture is born to be a safe and friendly space for every student who wants to have a taste of one of our classes. The MAP is glad to welcome you with the help of Professor Williamson and his “Introduction to Higher-order Metaphysics”.
Here is the abstract of the lecture:
“Higher-order metaphysics articulates metaphysical questions and theories in formal languages for higher-order logic, in which one can generalize into predicate position, sentence position, operator position, etc., as well as the more usual option of just generalizing into name position. This approach provides a more perspicuous and fruitful framework for metaphysical theorizing than traditional talk of properties, relations, propositions, and the like. The higher-order framework receives independent support from its use in mathematics. Questions about how to interpret higher-order quantification will be discussed. The lecture will keep technicalities to a minimum and will not presuppose any prior acquaintance with higher-order languages.”
Open lectures are held on campus for philosophy students and on Zoom for everyone. To attend either in presence or online, please register by filling out the form on this page:
https://join.usi.ch/en/master-philosophy-open-lecture
If you choose to attend the lecture remotely, we will send you an email to the Zoom meeting a couple of hours before the event. Alternatively, if you prefer to join us on campus, please arrive 20 minutes early for check-in.
Don’t miss the opportunity to learn about higher-order metaphysics with Professor Williamson!
3 months
Online Talk: A truthmaker semantics for modal logic
by events.isfi＠usi.ch
We are pleased to announce that on Friday, December 6 at 17.00 (CET), Alessandro Giordani (Catholic University Milan, USI) and Vita Saitta (Catholic University Milan) will give the talk A truthmaker semantics for modal logic.
This hybrid talk will take place in Room Multiuso, FTL Building (USI West Campus) and online via Zoom. If you are interested in joining online, please write to events.isfi(a)usi.ch<mailto:events.isfi@usi.ch>.
Abstract: Truthmaker semantics is an innovative framework addressing key philosophical questions about meaning and logic. It is emerging as a significant tool in philosophical logic, challenging possible worlds semantics in areas like semantic and linguistic analysis, non-classical logics, counterfactuals, and modalities. This talk has three main aims. The first is to explore what a semantics for modal notions looks like when adopting a truthmaker semantics, wherein truthmakers for modal sentences are identified with specific kinds of norms. The second is to demonstrate that such a semantics is general enough to allow us to capture modal systems characterized by classes of Kripke frames. The final aim is to prove that this semantics also allows us to capture those modal systems that are characterized by classes of neighborhood frames. The results we obtain are somewhat surprising, as they show that an intuitively appealing idea—namely, that every world is endowed with a set of norms determining which other worlds are possible relative to it---is sufficient for unifying Kripke and neighborhood semantics within the framework of truthmaker semantics.
Oragnised by the student assiociation Ratio and the Institute of Philosophy (ISFI) at USI.
3 months