Lectures:

Don Howard,"The Metaphysics of Entanglement and the Entanglement of Metaphysics"

Description:
A pedagogical overview of quantum entanglement will be provided. It will be used as a case study with respect to which I will pose questions about the relationship between our current best science and fundamental metaphysical investigations. I will suggest a view of metaphysics as, itself, in important respects, an experimental science, and I will venture some criticisms of an alternative a priori or postulational approach to metaphysics. This approach is rooted in part in Abner Shimony's provocative approach which he termed "experimental metaphysics." I'm planning also to take up some suggestions from chapter one, "Against Analytic Metaphysics," of Bas van Fraassen's recent book, The Empirical Stance.

Readings:

Roger Penrose, "The Entangled Quantum World," chapter 23 of The Road to Reality: A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe (New York: Knopf, 2005), pp. 578-608.

Bas van Fraassen, "Against Analytic Metaphysics," chapter 1 of The Empirical Stance (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002), pp. 1-30.

John Barrow "The Beginnings of the Universe"

Description:

This lecture deals with three kinds of cosmologies: those with singularities, those with non-singular beginnings in theories like inflation and multiverses, and those with no beginning. Barrow will discuss the historical development of cosmological models, the singularity theorems and why they don't help us. He will also talk about infinite replication as part of his discussion of actual and potential infinities in cosmologiy and black holes. Barrow will show how attitudes towards physical infinities influence the directions of research in physics (string theory) and in cosmology (cosmic censorship etc). This leads to a future project to be pursued: a discussion of whether or not, and, if so, why and how, the issue of a beginning to the universe is theologically interesting, including some of the Christian theological responses to changing cosmological theories over the past 80 years.

Readings:

W. Achtner, “Infinity in Science and Religion,” Neue Zeitschrift f. Systematische Theologie und Religionsphilosophie 47, 392-411 (2005) -- in English.

JD Barrow, The Infinite Book, Vintage (2005) esp. chaps 2,6-9.

JD Barrow, The Book of Nothing, Vintage (2002) chaps 8-9.

JD Barrow, The Origin of the Universe, Basic Bks (1997), chap.3.

JD Barrow & FJ Tipler, The Anthropic Cosmological Principle, Oxford UP, (1986).

P.C.W. Davies, The Goldilocks Enigma: Why is the Universe just right for life?, Allen Lane (2006).

J. Earman, Bangs, Crunches, Whimpers, and Shrieks, Oxford UP (1995).

GFR Ellis, “Issues in the Philosophy of Cosmology,” To appear in the Handbook in Philosophy of Physics, Ed J Butterfield and J Earman (Elsevier, 2006), available online at http://xxx.lanl.gov/PS_cache/astro-ph/pdf/0602/0602280.pdf

MJ Rees, Before the Beginning, Our Universe and Others, S. Schuster, (1997).

R. Russell, N. Murphy, & C.J. Isham, Quantum Cosmology and the Laws of Nature (Vatican Observatory and CTNS 2nd. Edn 1996), esp. pp35-92.

L. Susskind, The Cosmic Landscape: string theory and the illusion of intelligent design, Little Brown, (2005).

A. Vilenkin, Many Worlds in One: the search for other universes, Hill & Wang (2006).

Trihn Xuan Thuan, “Science and Buddhism: Gentle Bridges”

Description:
The general theme of the meeting is the discussion of how modern discoveries in physics and astrophysics have affected our view of ultimate reality. Thuan will discuss the latest developments in astrophysical cosmology (such as the data from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) regarding the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) results, the acceleration of the universe from supernova measurements and the galaxy clustering data). This will lead into more general questions pointing towards ultimate reality: Did the Universe have a beginning? Or is our universe just one in an infinite series of universes, without beginning nor end. Is the stunning fine-tuning of the universe, which has produced just the right conditions for life to evolve, a sign that a "principle of creation" is at work? How do galaxies and stars evolve?

Thuan will then discuss the view of reality as seen by a Buddhist, and compare that point of view with that of a modern physical scientist. How does the radical interpretation of reality offered by quantum physics conform to or differ from the Buddhist concept of reality? Do the profound changes in the worldview brought about by modern astrophysical discoveries lead to quite remarkable connections with the teachings of Buddhism? Thuan’s argument will be that some of Buddhism's views are strikingly similar to modern observations of the universe. Even though Buddhism and science have different ways of investigating the nature of reality, they complement rather than oppose each other.

Readings:

Matthieu Ricard and Thrinh Xuan Thuan, The Quantum and the Lotus: A Journey to the Frontiers Where Science and Buddhism Meet (New York: Three Rivers Press, 2001).

Marco Bersanelli, "Infinty and the nostalgia of the stars"

Description:
Bersanelli begins with recent WMAP data on the CMB that together with supernova measurements and HST results suggest that the universe has — remarkably — a nearly flat geometry. Observations expected in the near future may further significantly improve the precision of our knowledge of cosmological parameters, including those controlling spatial curvature. Some recent analyses seem to indicate a slightly closed universe. On the other hand, the possibility of an open, infinite universe, certainly not ruled out by current data, leads to a variety of questions ranging from scientific to metaphysical, including issues of uniqueness, fine tuning, and multiverse scenarios. However, a number of fundamental limitations and hidden assumptions must be carefully considered when one attempts to extrapolate astrophysical observations to characterize the universe beyond our finite cosmic horizon. The evidence of the unimaginable expanse of cosmic space, and the scientific debate about its finite/infinite state, can also point towards our experience of infinity from a personal and religious perspective. Here art and poetry, rather than mathematics, may offer a more suitable language to describe that experience. Finally theological concepts such as the infinity of God and the creation of human beings in God's image as found in the Judeo-Christian tradition might suggest connections between our capacity for the experience of the infinite and the infinities depicted by cosmology.

Readings:

The Planck Collaboration, “PLANCK Scientific Programme”, 2005 www.rssd.esa.int/SA/PLANCK/docs/Bluebook-ESA-SCI(2005)1_V2.pdf

G. F. R. Ellis, U. Kirchner, W. R. Stoeger, “Multiverses and physical cosmology,” http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/astro-ph/pdf/0305/0305292.pdf

M. Bersanelli, “An Echo of Ancient Questions from Contemporary Cosmology,” in 100 Perspectives on Science and Religion, edited by Charles L. Harper, Jr. (Philadelphia: Templeton Foundation Press, 2005), pp. 121-126.

L. Giussani, The Religious Sense (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1997).

Conference Description: In order to understand the basis of modern cosmological theories and the observations that sustain them we need to appreciate how general relativity, particle physics and thermodynamics each contribute to the picture of the universe's history that has been built up over the past 40 years. Of particular importance are the key pieces of observational data that establish the expanding universe and test our reconstruction of its past history back to very early times. Much of this observational data is quite new and reflects the remarkable recent developments in instrumental design and satellite technology. We have also found that the properties of the smallest elementary particles of matter are intimately tied up with the properties of the largest structures in the universe, and conversely that astronomical observations shed new light upon the realm of elementary particles. Both of these asymptotic realms, of the very small and the very large, take us far beyond the reach of direct human experience and provoke many of our deepest philosophical, aesthetic, and religious questions about the nature of existence.

According to contemporary cosmology with this basis in physics and observational evidence, the universe is big and old, dark and cold, on track to expand and cool forever. We have observed a brief period of its history and learnt much about its remarkable structure, but many mysteries remain. It may have had an “absolute beginning” at some finite time in the past, or it may be part of some much more complex, infinitely old multiverse. The favored explanation for the unusual uniformity of the universe and the existence of the small fluctuations that gave rise to stars and galaxies is the occurrence of a brief period of accelerated expansion “inflation” very close to the beginning of its expansion history some 13.7 billion years ago. A remarkable series of observations from Earth and from space have detected the relic radiation left over from the hot early stages of the universe and they appear to confirm the existence of an inflationary interlude in the past. But there have been major surprises as well. Recent discoveries tell us that the expansion began accelerating again when the universe was about three-quarters of its present size. If this acceleration continues, then all parts of the universe will eventually pass out of contact with each other and all forms of information processing in the universe will cease. The existence of galaxies and stars and carbon based life would not have occurred in the universe if this acceleration had begun slightly earlier in cosmic history. What do these discoveries tell us about the ultimate significance of life in the universe, and, in turn, about the source and purpose of the universe?

Ours is also a universe in which the dimensionless constants of nature and the fundamental laws of nature portray it as "fine-tuned" for life. Why do these laws and constants take the form and values they do? If the constants are very slowly changing in time, as some observations imply, could this provide a partial explanation of the “fune-tuning”? Perhaps, but some scholars suggest instead that fine-tuning provides an entry point to the quest for a transcendent, ultimate explanation lying beyond the grasp of scientific methodologies. Meanwhile, recent theories in inflationary and quantum cosmology explain fine-tuning in terms of multiple domains in an inflationary universe or in terms of multiple universes vis. eternal inflation / multiverses, based in part on the prospect for string theory to unify relativistic cosmology and particle physics. But do all these domains and multiverses actually exist, or are they mere theoretical possibilities? In light of all this, what is the ultimate significance of the fine-tuning of our universe? What ultimate questions about the universe might science answer in the future and what questions appear to be unanswerable in principle by science?

Ellis, George F. R. "The Theology of the Anthropic Principle." (Summary in CTNS/VO series)

Isham, C.J. and J.C. Polkinghorne. "The Debate over the Block Universe." (Summary...)

Russell, Robert John. "Finite Creation without a Beginning: The Doctrine of Creation in Relation to Big Bang and Quantum Cosmologies." (Summary...)