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Our Mission:
A century after Hermann Minkowski united space and time into an inseparable four-dimensional entity the question "What is the nature of spacetime?" remains open. As this question may have profound implications for physics, philosophy, and our entire world view the main goal of the Society is to stimulate the research on spacetime by finding ways to encourage physicists, philosophers of physics, and philosophers to collaborate on a continued basis.
The immediate objectives of the Society are:
- to involve the philosophers of the spacetime community as well as physicists working in areas related to spacetime physics in an attempt to identify the open questions in this field
- to provide a forum where physicists, philosophers of physics, and philosophers can discuss philosophical/conceptual issues of spacetime; such a discussion is important for its own sake and also for the sake of clarifying the meaning of the existing physical theories
- to organize biennial conferences
- to make this website an important web resource for all working in the area of spacetime
A Governing Board of the Society is responsible for the organization of the Society's biennial conferences.
The current members of the Governing Board are:
Craig Callender (University of California, San Diego)
Dennis Dieks (Utrecht University)
Mauro Dorato (University of Rome Three)
John Earman (University of Pittsburgh)
Robert Geroch (University of Chicago)
Vesselin Petkov (Minkowski Institute)
Steven Savitt (University of British Columbia)
Publications:
- D. Dieks (ed.) (2006) The Ontology of Spacetime (Elsevier, Amsterdam); "Philosophy and Foundations of Physics," Volume 1. This book contains selected papers from the First International Conference on the Ontology of Spacetime.
- D. Dieks (ed.) (2008) The Ontology of Spacetime II (Elsevier, Amsterdam); "Philosophy and Foundations of Physics," Volume 4. This book contains selected papers from the Second International Conference on the Ontology of Spacetime.
- V. Petkov (ed.) (2010) Space, Time, and Spacetime: Physical and Philosophical Implications of Minkowski's Unification of Space and Time (Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York); "Fundamental Theories of Physics." This volume is part of the celebration of the centennial anniversary of Minkowski's discovery of spacetime. It contains selected papers by physicists and philosophers presented at the Third International Conference on the Nature and Ontology of Spacetime (Concordia University, June 13-15, 2008), which commemorated the one hundredth anniversary of Minkowski's talk "Space and Time" given on September 21, 1908.
- V. Petkov (ed.) (2010) Minkowski Spacetime: A Hundred Years Later (Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York); "Fundamental Theories of Physics." The volume is dedicated to the one hundredth anniversary of the publication of Hermann Minkowski's paper "Space and Time" in 1909. It begins with the original German text of "Raum und Zeit" and a new English translation by Dennis Lehmkuhl.
The question of the nature of spacetime inspires not only physicists and philosophers but composers as well.
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