The seminar of the Research Group “Historical Epistemology of the Final Theory Program” runs once a month, usually on a Monday at 14:00 in the seminar room of the Villa (Harnackstraße 5). The talks deal primarily with the history, philosophy, and foundations of modern (post-WWII) physics or with wider epistemological questions related to the work of the group. There are no pre-circulated papers.
One of Eddington's photographs of the 1919 solar eclipse experiment, presented in his 1920 paper announcing its success. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tests_of_general_relativity.
Seminar Series
Historical Epistemology of the Final Theory Program
All welcome, no registration necessary. For further information email officeblum@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de.
2025
The Beauty Fallacy? Truth and Beauty in the Age of Symmetry MPIWG Villa, Room V005/Seminar Room
MoreHeisenberg and Potentia: Insight into Quantum Reality, or ‘Passing the Buck’? MPIWG Villa, Room V005/Seminar Room
More2024
Transforming Noise: A History of Its Science and Technology from Disturbing Sounds to Informational Errors, 1900-1955 MPIWG Villa, Room V005/Seminar Room
MoreString Theory and the "Real World" in the 1980s MPIWG Villa, Room V005/Seminar Room
MoreThe Dual Dynamical Foundation of Orthodox Quantum Mechanics (based on a joint work with Ricardo Correa da Silva) MPIWG Villa, Room V005/Seminar Room
MoreOn the Reissner-Sciama Hypothesis: Historical Proposals for a Machian Unification of Gravity and Inertia MPIWG Villa, Room V005/Seminar Room
MoreLove, War, and Physics: Between Two Evils: Houtermans’ Saga and Other Episodes MPIWG Villa, Room V005/Seminar Room
MoreCausality in QFT: The Scattering Paradigm and Beyond MPIWG Villa, Room V005/Seminar Room
MoreHistorical Perspectives on the Grand Unification Dream MPIWG Villa, Room V005/Seminar Room
MoreRealism through the Back Door: Pierre Duhem’s Energetics MPIWG Villa, Room V005/Seminar Room
More“Poetic Technologies,” the Second Astronomical Revolution, and the Ascendance of Big Bang Cosmology MPIWG Villa, Room V005/Seminar Room
MoreRendering Magnetism Visible: Diagrams and Experiments Between 1300 and 1700 MPIWG Villa, Room V005/Seminar Room
MoreMulti-Messenger Astrophysics and the Epistemic Reasons of Cooperative Behavior MPIWG Villa, Room V005/Seminar Room
MoreAbout Split and Splice. A Phenomenology of Experimentation MPIWG Villa, Room V005/Seminar Room
More2023
The Origin Story at the End of the Universe: An Empirical Inquiry into a Cosmology of Problems MPIWG Villa, Room V005/Seminar Room
MoreA Brief History of the Misinterpretation of the Everett Interpretation MPIWG Villa, Room V005/Seminar Room
MoreThe Paradigm of Science: Axiomatic Methods from Euclid to Gauss MPIWG Villa, Room V005/Seminar Room
MoreShaping a Concept - A Historical Perspective on the Public Perception of Black Holes MPIWG Villa, Room V005/Seminar Room
MoreStyles of Reasoning and Contemporary Historical Epistemology MPIWG Villa, Room V005/Seminar Room
MoreHow the Saha Ionization Equation was Discovered MPIWG Villa, Room V005/Seminar Room
MoreThe Challenge to Convey Stephen Hawking's Unification Research to Museum Audiences MPIWG Villa, Room V005/Seminar Room
MorePhilosophysics: A Case Study of a Successful Interplay between Physics and Philosophy for the Establishment of Quantum Foundations in Vienna MPIWG Villa, Room V005/Seminar Room
MoreHistorical Materialism & Science or the Finiteness of our Scientific Models/Theories MPIWG Villa, Room V005/Seminar Room
MoreUniversal Aspects of Scientific Practice: Commitment, Methodology, and Technique MPIWG Villa, Room V005/Seminar Room
- Several Speakers
2022
Historical Epistemology and the Semantic Layers of Ether / Meta-Empirical Assessment in the Early Universe Scenario Hybrid Event
- Several Speakers
Interference Patterns of Religion and Science in Werner Heisenberg’s Popular Writings Hybrid Event
MoreGeometrization vs. Unification. The Einstein-Reichenbach Debate About the Fernparallelismus Field Theory Hybrid Event
More“Science Is a Creation.” Historiography of Science and Institutional Commitment in Giorgio Diaz De Santillana Online Event
- Eleonora Loiodice
Multi-Medial Storytelling and the Search for The "Theory of Everything" Hybrid Event
More2021
Visualization and Understanding in Modern Physics Online Event
MoreYoung Yukawa and Heisenberg’s Visit to Kyoto in 1929 Online Event
- Daisuke Konagaya (Ryukoku University)
From Two-Component Theories to Neutrino Flavor Oscillations: A Long Way in the History of Neutrino Physics
MoreCharles S. Peirce on the "Mutual Aid" between History of Science and Philosophy
- Tullio Viola (Maastricht University)
2020
How "Epistemological Letters" Changed the Foundations of Quantum Mechanics
MoreVirtual Transitions and the Narrative in Which They Were Included: Its Inception and Its Reception MPIWG Villa, Room V005/Seminar Room
MoreThe Rochester Conferences on High-Energy Nuclear Physics and Journalization in Mid-20th Century Science Publishing MPIWG Villa, Room V005/Seminar Room
More2019
Lessons from the Case of the Life Sciences: Thinking toward Philosophy of Science as Interdisciplinarity MPIWG Villa, Room V005/Seminar Room
- Charles Pence (Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium)
Localizability and vacuum entanglement in (non-)relativistic QFT MPIWG Villa, Room V005/Seminar Room
- Maria Papageorgiou (University of Waterloo, Canada)
Hermann Weyl's Neighbourhoods: "Spaces" in Mathematics, Physics, Subjectivity, and Historiography MPIWG Villa, Room V005/Seminar Room
MoreEddington’s Philosophy of Science MPIWG Villa, Room V005/Seminar Room
- Florian Laguens (Facultés libres de philosophie et de psychologie, Paris)
CANCELED: MPRG Final Theory Program Seminar MPIWG Villa, Room V005/Seminar Room
- Christian Röken
Peter Bergmann on Observables in Hamiltonian General Relativity MPIWG Villa, Room V005/Seminar Room
- J. Brian Pitts
2018
Schwarzschild Gravitational Field and Collapsed Stars MPIWG Villa, Room V005/Seminar Room
MoreScience without Law MPIWG Villa, Room V005/Seminar Room
More“A Very Serious Difficulty”: the Role of Gauge Invariance in Quantum Electrodynamics (1929–1954) MPIWG Villa, Room V005/Seminar Room
MoreWorking outside the Mainstream during the Pre-History of Quantum Gravity MPIWG Villa, Room V005/Seminar Room
- Alessio Rocci (University of Padova)
On the Use and Misuse of Non-empirical Theory Assessment MPIWG Villa, Room V005/Seminar Room
- Radin Dardashti
Emergence and Reduction in Condensed Matter Physics MPIWG Villa, Room V005/Seminar Room
- Patricia Palacios (University of Salzburg)
Invariance Essentialism MPIWG Villa, Room V005/Seminar Room
MoreOn Strings and Loops: Shifting the Perspectives MPIWG Villa, Room V005/Seminar Room
MoreOn Virtues and Vices of Axiomatic Quantum Theory MPIWG Villa, Room V005/Seminar Room
MoreThe Causal Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics MPIWG Villa, Room V005/Seminar Room
- Virgile Besson (Claude Bernard University Lyon 1)
The Naming of Particles: Representation and Concept Formation in Early Particle Physics MPIWG Villa, Room V005/Seminar Room
MoreNaturalness, Wilsonian Renormalization, and “Fundamental Parameters” in Quantum Field Theory MPIWG Villa, Room V005/Seminar Room
MoreIs the Standard Theory of Semiclassical Einstein Gravity Viable? MPIWG Villa, Room V005/Seminar Room
- Maaneli Derakshani (University of Utrecht)