Reading Group

The biweekly RCNP reading group takes usually place on Mondays at 16:00 and covers a variety of topics in the history and philosophy of physics and mathematics. We are currently reading the book Reversing the Arrow of Time by Bryan Roberts. For questions or to stay updated, subscribe to our mailing list.

When: See schedule below
Where: Erasmus building 18.02

Schedule

Convener: Manus Visser

27 October 2025

Bryan Roberts, Reversing the Arrow of Time, Chapters 1 and 2

10 November 2025

Bryan Roberts, Reversing the Arrow of Time, Chapter 3 and 4

17 November 2025

Bryan Roberts, Reversing the Arrow of Time, Chapters 5 and 6

1 December 2025

Bryan Roberts, Reversing the Arrow of Time, Chapters 7 and 8 (Bryan Roberts will join the session online)

15 December 2025

Kian Salimkhani, 'A Dynamical Perspective on the Direction of Time'.

19 January 2025
t.b.a.

Previous readings

2025

Conveners: Kian Salimkhani, Manus Visser

Bokulich and Parker, Data models, representation and adequacy-for-purpose

Catherine Elgin, Understanding and the facts

Frigg and Nguyen, Mirrors without warnings

David Wallace, Stating Structural Realism: Mathematics-First Approaches to Physics and Metaphysics

Caspar Jacobs, Stating Maths-First Realism, or: How to Say Things with Models

Klaas Landsman, Philosophy of Mathematical Physics

James Bogen and James Woodward, Saving the Phenomena; supplementary: James Bogen 'Saving the Phenomena' and saving the phenomena, James Woodward Data and phenomena: a restatement and defense, James Nguyen On the Pragmatic Equivalence between Representing Data and Phenomena

James Nguyen and Roman Frigg, Scientific Representation

Jos Uffink, Insuperable difficulties: Einstein’s statistical road to molecular physics

John D. Norton, Atoms, entropy, quanta: Einstein’s miraculous argument of 1905

Lena Zuchowski, From Randomness and Entropy to the Arrow of Time

Jos Uffink, Compendium of the Foundations of Classical Statistical Physics

Jos Uffink, Bluff Your Way into the Second Law of Thermodynamics

Roman Frigg and Charlotte Werndl, Foundations of Statistical Mechanics

2024

Convener: Marij van Strien; Kian Salimkhani

Connes, Lichnerowicz and Schutzenberger: Triangle de Pensées (Triangle of Thought)

Patricia Palacios, Emergence and Reduction in Physics

Kerry McKenzie, Fundamentality and Grounding

Nazim Bouatta and Jeremy Butterfield, On Emergence in Gauge Theories at the 't Hooft Limit

Alexandre Guay and Olivier Sartenaer: A new look at emergence. Or when after is different

Sebastian de Haro: Towards a Theory of Emergence for the Physical Sciences

Sébastien Rivat: Open systems across scales

Sébastien Rivat: Effective theories and infinite idealizations

Sébastien Rivat: Drawing scales apart

Sébastien Rivat: Renormalization scrutinized

Philip W. Anderson: More is different

Jeremy Butterfield: Less is different

Jeremy Butterfield: Emergence, Reduction and Supervenience: A Varied Landscape

Routledge Companion to Phenomenology: Logic (Tieszen) and Philosophy of mathematics (Hartimo and Haaparanta)

Edmund Husserl: Addendum III to the Crisis

Edmund Husserl: Crisis of the European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology

2023

Convener: Marij van Strien

Wayne Myrvold: On some early objections to Bohm’s theory

Marij van Strien: Why Bohm was never a determinist

Klaas Landsman: Bohmian mechanics is not deterministic

David Bohm: Causality and Chance in Modern Physics

Klaas Landsman: Getting even with Heisenberg

Werner Heisenberg: Reality and its Order