The Metaphysics of Cosmology

We are pleased to announce the 'Metaphysics of Cosmology' workshop, to be held September 10–12, 2025, at the Institute of Philosophy, Università della Svizzera italiana (USI) in Lugano, Switzerland.

The workshop will explore metaphysical questions arising from contemporary physical theories of cosmology and spacetime, with particular focus on the nature of spacetime and the interrelationship between space, time, and spacetime.

Programme:

Wednesday, 10 Sept — Day 1

• 14:15–14:30 — Welcome & opening remarks
• 14:30–15:30 — Karim Thebault: Time and Knowledge in Quantum Cosmology
• 15:30–16:30 — Henrique Gomes: TBA
• 16:30–17:00 — Coffee break
• 17:00–18:00 — Cody Gilmore: TBA

Thursday, 11 Sept — Day 2

• 09:30–10:30 — Damiano Costa: Separatism and Unitism about Spacetime
• 10:30—11:00 Coffee break
• 11:00–12:00 — Lorenzo Lorenzetti & Enrico Cinti: Newton-Cartan Lessons for the Metaphysics of Time
• 12:00–13:30 — Lunch
• 13:30–14:30 — Oliver Pooley: How to recover spacetime structure from privileged coordinates
• 14:30–15:30 — Eleanor March: Minimal coupling, the strong equivalence principle, and the adaptation of matter to spacetime geometry
• 15:30–16:00 — Coffee break
• 16:00–17:00 — James Read: Regularity relationalism and general relativity

Friday, 12 Sept — Day 3

• 09:30–10:30 — Federico Viglione: The Absoluteness of Absolute Cosmic Simultaneity 
• 10:30—11:00 Coffee break
• 11:00–12:00 — Antonis Antoniou: Whence the desire to close the Universe?
• 12:00–13:30 — Lunch
• 13:30–14:30 — Nicola Bamonti: In Search of Cosmic Time 
• 14:30–15:30 — Silvia de Bianchi: Functionalism: Limits and Perspectives
• 15:30–16:00 — Coffee break
• 16:00–17:00 — Jim Weatherall: TBA

This workshop is generously supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) through a Scientific Exchange grant (grant number IZSEZ0_235599).