'Ways and Whys'

null, Dr. Alastair Wilson (University of Birmingham)

Our life is full of contingency. In every decision we face a range of alternative possibilities - ways for things to be - between which we have to choose as best we can. What sort of things are these elusive ways for things to be? How can we know anything about them? And why do we care about them? A novel answer comes from an unlikely source: quantum theory, understood in terms of parallel quantum worlds. But this approach leaves another kind of question open: why are things the way they are? I disentangle some possible answers to this new question suggested by the quantum account of contingency. Some why-questions can be wholly answered by quantum theory; other why-questions emerge as unanswerable, for principled reasons; but a third type of why-question seems to run deeper than any explanation quantum theory can provide.

Professor Wilson's research relates to metaphysics and the philosophy of science, with particular interests in the metaphysics of modality and dependence, Everettian quantum mechanics, explanation, chance and laws of nature. You can find Professor Wilson's biography here and detail on Professor Wilson's current five-year research project FraMEPhys (A Framework for Metaphysical Explanation in Physics), funded by the European Research Council here. 

Professor Wilson's lecture will conclude at 6.30pm and be followed by a reception and book launch. Links to the two books to be launched can be found below.

• The Nature of Contingency: Quantum Physics as Modal Realism
• The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Physics

Inaugural lectures are a landmark in academic life, held on the appointment of new professorships. Visit our College of Arts and Law Inaugural Lectures website to view the archive of previous talks from our academic staff.