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The Philosophy Department Colloquium Series presents:
"Leibniz, Krauss and Getting Something From Nothing: Toward a Quantum Ontology"
Speaker: Phil Hoffman (Senior Advisor, Alberta Energy Regulator)
Day/Date: Friday, February 10, 2017
Time: 4:00 p.m.
Location: B-650 (University Hall)
Abstract: My starting point is the question famously posed in 1714 by Gottfried Leibniz: Why is there something rather than nothing? I examine the assumptions underlying Leibniz’s question and evaluate a view advanced by three physicists, Stephen Hawking, Leonard Mlodinow and Lawrence Krauss, who claim the question is answered by quantum field theory. I criticize their argument while developing an alternative account that partially answers Leibniz’s question. Although I differ from Krauss, I rehabilitate his position by providing a framework that is consistent with his argument from quantum theory. My view involves conceptions of Everything, Something, Nothing, and quantum indeterminacy, according to which Nothing and Everything are actually interchangeable and indistinguishable. My account recasts Leibniz’s question in novel ways.
Contact:
Bev Garnett | bev.garnett@uleth.ca | (403) 380-1894
