This seminar is co-taught by Marta Pedroni and Christian Wüthrich.

Philosophy of physics and metaphysics are intimately interconnected. In this seminar, students will confront issues at the intersection between these two areas. Different debates and methodologies in metaphysics of physics will be introduced and discussed. What are the metaphysical implications of our best physical theories? How can the tools of metaphysics inform the philosophy of physics? How do metaphysical debates evolve and develop in light of physics?

This seminar deals with topics at the intersection between philosophy of physics and metaphysics, such as laws of nature, (in)determinism, identity and individuality of the entities of our best physical theories, the part-whole relation, fundamentality, and emergence.

Accessibility and Prerequisites. No previous knowledge in physics or philosophy is presupposed, although familiarity with issues in metaphysics of science will be helpful. An overview of the rele- vant metaphysical debates will be presented at the beginning of the course. Notions of relativity, quantum mechanics, and thermodynamics will be introduced in dedicated lectures.

This course will be conducted entirely in English. It will include both introductory lectures and student presentations.

If this seminar is taken for credit, please let us know. You will have to fulfill requirements, depending on the module for which you are taking this course. For credit in philosophy:

MA7:

- travail écrit de recherche (env. 12 pages, 24'000 signes) et présentation orale durant le séminaire

MA8:

- travail écrit de recherche (env. 12 pages, 24'000 signes) ou présentation orale durant le séminaire

Contact us if you need credit in physics or in another programme.

Our expectation is that everyone prepares the assigned readings ahead of time, actively participates in the seminar (including those featuring a guest speaker), and accepts a reasonable share of presentation duties.

In its Statement on artificial intelligence, the University of Geneva clearly states that

In their scientific publications and creations, researchers and students are required to respect the rules and principles governing scientific integrity, in particular the prohibition of plagiarism, and to comply with good scientific practice.

This good scientific practice demands that the use of generative AI "must always be explicitly agreed upon with the research supervisor and must be methodologically describable" (Guidebook on Generative Artificial Intelligence, p. 14) because they "raise issues of plagiarism" (ibid.). Hence, "[w]riting tasks should not be delegated to the tool" (ibid.). In other words, it is impermissible to use ChatGPT or similar tools in the writing of seminar papers or theses.

Course materials such as lecture notes, handouts, etc may be made available as they will be used in class.

All reading materials will be made available on Moodle.

This is the schedule for the seminar. It is subject to adjustment. For each session, the listed readings must be read in advance; the readings with an asterisk (*) are optional readings.

Date	Readings	Presenter(s)
19.09.	Callender (2021)	Marta Pedroni, Christian Wüthrich
26.09.	Norton (1999)	Lecture: Marta Pedroni
03.10.	Balashov (1999)	Annica Vieser
10.10.	Teitel (2022)	Elisa Ballabio
17.10.	Callender (2004), *Price (2004)	Anja Lukić
24.10.	Loewer (2012)	Matěj Krátký
31.10.	Albert (1992), *Ismael (2020), *Ney (2013)	Lecture: Marta Pedroni
07.11.	No seminar (semaine de lecture)
14.11.	No seminar (Philosophy of Science Association meeting)
21.11.	Saunders (2006)	Andrea Aguirre
28.11.	Calosi and Wilson (2019)	Bruno Beldjelti
05.12.	Ismael and Schaffer (2020)	Ryan D'Souza
12.12.	Workshop Quantum Gravity and the Laws of Nature project	(Alexandre Guay)
19.12.	Dorato and Esfeld (2016)	Marco Sanchez