What is Reality? | Subir Sarkar, John Dupré, Nancy Cartwright
136Watch the debate in full at https://iai.tv/video/the-end-of-all-things-what-is-reality-made-of-metaphysics?utm_source=YouTube&utm_medium=description
What is reality made from?
We tend to think of physical, material things as the ultimate stuff of the universe. Yet contemporary physics has largely abandoned physical things in favour of energy and fields. And the late Mary Midgley argued that materialism was a profound mistake. Should we give up on our conviction that physical stuff is the bedrock of the world, or is such talk ivory tower nonsense?
Subir Sarkar is a physicist at the University of Oxford, where he is head of the Particle Theory Group at the Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics. His research interests are at the interface between fundamental physics and astrophysics & cosmology - specifically theoretical aspects of dark matter, inflation and large-scale structure formation.
John Dupré is a philosopher of science. He is the director of the ESRC Centre for Genomics in Society and professor of philosophy at the University of Exeter. His research aims to rethink central issues in the philosophy of biology by elaborating an ontology for biology that takes full account of the processual nature of living systems.
Nancy Cartwright is a former mathematician turned Philosopher of Science. Her book How The Laws of Physics Lie, argues that fundamental explanatory laws, the deepest and most admired successes of modern physics, do not in fact describe regularities that exist in nature.
#stringtheory #darkenergy #quarks
Visit IAI.tv for our full library of debates, talks, articles and podcasts from international thought leaders and world-class academics. The Institute of Art and Ideas features videos and articles from cutting edge thinkers discussing the ideas that are shaping the world, from metaphysics to string theory, technology to democracy, aesthetics to genetics.
For debates and talks: https://iai.tv
For articles: https://iai.tv/articles
For courses: https://iai.tv/iai-academy/courses