All Things Reichenbach (22 - 24 July 2019)
Idea and Motivation
Hans Reichenbach (1891-1953), one of the founding fathers of Logical Empiricism, is among the most important philosophers of science of the twentieth century and without doubt one of the most prominent philosophers of physics of the first half of the past century. While his overall philosophical project is no longer seen as viable as a whole, his work continues to be influential, often in unnoticed but deep ways. Despite the fact that many of his ideas still retain their interest and are discussed in current philosophy of science, he remains, in fact, one of the least understood and least carefully studied philosophical thinkers of his time.
This conference is dedicated to highlighting the importance of Hans Reichenbach's work, across all areas of his thought, from a variety of perspectives. By bringing together top researchers from the diverse fields of physics, philosophy, history, and sociology, we seek to create an atmosphere in which major advances in understanding can be made by the cross-pollination that discussion across traditional disciplinary boundaries can create. We aim to engender collaboration and interaction among philosophers and scientists so that insights from different disciplines may be shared and inspire workers in all relevant fields to find new approaches to both discipline-specific and interdisciplinary problems.
Program
Day 1 (22 July 2019)
| Time | Event |
|---|---|
| 09:00 - 09:25 | Registration |
| 09:25 - 09:30 | Welcome |
| 09:30 - 10:40 | Robert Rynasiewicz (Johns Hopkins University): |
| 10:40 - 11:00 | Coffee Break |
| 11:00 - 12:10 | Marco Giovanelli (University of Tübingen): Reichenbach vs. the Unified Field Theory Program. The Untranslated Appendix to The Philosophy of Space and Time |
| 12:10 - 13:00 | Neil Dewar (MCMP, LMU Munich): Reichenbach's Path from the Constitutive to the Conventional |
| 13:00 - 14:30 | Lunch Break (on site) |
| 14:30 - 15:40 | Alan Richardson (University of British Columbia): Analysis in German Scientific Philosophy: The Case of Reichenbach's Erkennntnisanalyse in the 1920s |
| 15:40 - 16:00 | Coffee Break |
| 16:00 - 17:10 | Flavia Padovani (Drexel University): Coordination Beyond Coordination |
| 17:10 - 18:20 | Frederick Eberhardt (Caltech): Coordination Updated |
Day 2 (23 July 2019)
| Time | Event |
|---|---|
| 09:30 - 10:40 | Alison Fernandes (Trinity College, Dublin): The Direction of Time and its Expression in Records |
| 10:40 - 11:00 | Coffee Break |
| 11:00 - 12:10 | Erik Curiel (MCMP, LMU Munich): Empiricism, Quantum Theory, and the Causal Theory of Time |
| 12:10 - 13:00 | Robin Lorenz (University of Oxford): Quantum Causal Models – The Merits of the Spirit of Reichenbach’s Principle for Understanding Quantum Causal Structure |
| 13:00 - 14:30 | Lunch Break (on site) |
| 14:30 - 15:20 | Michael Stöltzner (USC): Temptations and Limits of the Microperspective: Reichenbach’s Philosophy of Time Meets Feynman’s Diagram |
| 15:20 - 15:40 | Coffee Break |
| 15:40 - 16:50 | Clark Glymour (Carnegie Mellon University): Reichenbach's Cube World and "Inferences to Things Unobserved" |
| 16:50 - 18:00 | Michael Strevens (NYU): Dynamic Probability and the Problem of Initial Conditions |
| 19:00 | Conference Dinner |
Day 3 (24 July 2019)
| Time | Event |
|---|---|
| 10:00 - 11:10 | Gerhard Schurz (Universität Düsseldorf): Reichenbach's Best-Alternative Account to the Problem of Induction |
| 11:10 - 11:30 | Coffee Break |
| 11:30 - 12:40 | Miklos Redei (LSE): Reichenbach's Common Cause Principle |
| 12:40 - 14:10 | Lunch Break (on site) |
| 14:10 - 15:20 | Jeanne Peijnenburg (University of Groningen): Reichenbach and Transitivity |
Acknowledgement
The conference is organized by the Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy (LMU Munich). The MCMP is very grateful for financial support from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG). 
Photo Credits
Hans Reichenbach on motorcycle, courtesy of Steven Gimbel and Jutta Elizabeth Austin.