Philosophers, physicists prepare to do battle

by Sylvain Comeau

For four days next month, a heady intellectual atmosphere will reign at Concordia, as deep thinkers from around the world tackle the profound implications of Einstein’s theory of relativity.

The International Conference on the Ontology of Spacetime, May 11 to 14, will host a gathering of philosophers, physicists, philosophers of science, and theologians, who will discuss and debate what many consider the greatest intellectual challenge facing mankind.

“In 1908, Hermann Minkowski, one of Einstein’s professors, developed a four-dimensional formulation of the theory of relativity,” said conference organizer Vesselin Petkov in an interview. “HM united space and time into a single entity. We call it Hermann Minkowski spacetime, but he called it the world.”

Petkov, who teaches philosophy of science in Concordia’s Science College as well as the Liberal Arts College and the Department of Philosophy, explained that the fourth dimension is time itself.

“Hermann Minkowski was essentially saying that reality isn’t the usual three-dimensional world we all perceive; it is, rather, a unification of space and time.”

Petkov said a debate has developed between two scientific camps who interpret Minkowski’s writings differently.

“One camp says that Minkowski four-dimensional space just describes the three-dimensional world which evolves in time. The second interpretation, the more challenging one, is that his spacetime is a mathematical model of a real four-dimensional world.”

The crux of the debate is that the second camp believes there is no difference between past, present and future, despite the way it is perceived by people in their everyday existence. This view is also referred to as the “block universe.”

“If the second camp holds the correct view, the implications are profound for not only physicists but also for philosophy and even for our view of nature. That’s because if time is a fourth dimension, all moments of time are equally existent. Einstein understood these implications too, in the last part of his life.”

Petkov, who belongs to the second camp, acknowledges that this view, for most people, would seem to violate common sense.

“The everyday view of reality, which is based on our perceptions, is that only the present exists. The past and the future are not given.

“Hermann Weyl, a German mathematician and philosopher, offered a resolution of that conflict. He said that it is our consciousness that is moving in this block universe. The consciousness realizes the information stores in our brains, but misinterprets it as representing a three-dimensional world evolving in time.”

But he believes that the only alternative is to reject the theory of relativity, which is unrealistic, since it has stood up over decades of scientific experimentation.

“The conference will put the emphasis on the experimental evidence, which is the ultimate judge. Many times, the experiments have confirmed all the predictions of relativity. In fact, this occurs practically on a daily basis, in various fields of research.”

“The majority of researchers, both physicists and philosophers, believe that the block universe is undoubtedly wrong. The question is how they can provide an interpretation which is consistent with the experimental confirmations of the theory of relativity.”

Petkov says that both camps will be well represented at the conference.

“There will undoubtedly be an ongoing debate at the conference; speakers will have 45 minutes to present their views, followed by a 15-minute question period. Some of the speakers will defend the four-dimensionalist view, and others the three-dimensionalist view. Inevitably, the two camps will clash during the question period.”

The conference will also be a springboard for the formation of a new International Society for the Advanced Study of Spacetime, which will be based in Montreal, possibly at Concordia itself. For more on the conference, which will end with a public lecture, please go to Seminars.