Philosophy of Physics Seminar (Thursday - Week 8, HT19)

The emergence of spacetime from quantum gravity appears to be a striking case-study of emergent phenomena in physics (albeit one that is speculative at present). There are, in fact, two different cases of emergent spacetime in quantum gravity: a ``synchronic'' conception, applying between different levels of description, and a ``diachronic'' conception, from the universe ``before'' and after the ``Big Bang'' in quantum cosmology. The purpose of this paper is to explore these two different senses of spacetime emergence; and to see whether, and how, they can be understood in the context of specific extant accounts of emergence in physics.

There will be a dinner at Zheng in Jericho following the seminar, open to all (at your own expense). Please email james.read@philosophy.ox.ac.uk by Wednesday morning before the seminar if you would like to attend.