SAS Faculty at International Conferences

SAS professors are constantly engaged in in-depth research and actively partake in international debate on multiple research topics, as well as international-scale conferences.

For example, Louis Vervoort was invited to the “New Directions in the Foundations of Physics” Conference in Italy and took part in the “Superdeterminism and Retrocausality” workshop in Bonn (Germany). Louis took an active part in the discussion of quantum physics research with other scientists leading universities.

Event description:

During these events participants mostly focused on the questions about quantum mechanics, such as: What do we mean by “superdeterministic,” “retrocausal,” “teleological,” and “future input dependent”? What are the commonly made objections to these approaches and how can we best address them? What models have been proposed so far? What are the differences and what do they have in common? What model-independent and what model-dependent experimental tests can we think of?

In June, Giacomo Andreoletti presented his work “Branching Time and the Spectre of Fatalism” at the Sixth Italian Conference on Analytic Metaphysics and Ontology at the University of L'Aquila (Italy).

Abstract of Giacomo's paper:

Branching time is one of the most popular ways to resist classical fatalistic arguments. In branching time, the future is open insofar as it consists of alternative future possibilites that are all ontologically on a par. The peculiar ontology of branching time allows one to rebut fatalistic arguments to the conclusion that everything that will happen is already inevitable. However, in this paper I show that the spectre of fatalism still haunts branching time, at least with respect to some aspects of the future. That is, I show how a form of fatalistic argument applies to branching time with respect to what is possible and what is not.

Many faculty members of ours are already planning their further participation in international events. Marko Turk will be speaking about “Teaching Philosophies in Higher Education” during the Teaching and Education Summit 2022 in November. He will be speaking about the study of philosophical approaches to education from different points of view. The Summit will feature 100+ speakers and host over 1000 audience members from 30+ countries.

About the lecture:

The lecture will be based on pilot research results on teaching philosophies in higher education based on qualitative research conducted with university professors in university teaching on different continents. In the lecture, teaching philosophies will be discussed from two different teaching perspectives – teacher-centred and student-centred. Results will be discussed from the perspective of a particular philosophy and problematised by research participants' experiences, views and attitudes towards teaching.