The roundtable explores the nature of time's arrow -- from David Albert's account of a low-entropy universe unfolding through statistical mechanics toward ever more probable states, to Henri Bergson's insistence on time's continuous, unbroken flow. The discussion asks whether these scientific and intuitive pictures of time can be reconciled, or whether they simply describe different things.
Speakers
Claudia Brodsky
Professor of Comparative Literature, Princeton University
Scholar of German and comparative literature whose work engages philosophy and literary theory across two centuries
Jacob Barandes
Philosopher of Physics, Harvard University
Works on quantum foundations, causation, probability, and spacetime; organizer of the New England Workshop on History and Philosophy of Physics
Barry Loewer
Professor of Philosophy, Rutgers University
Philosopher of science whose work with David Albert bridges statistical mechanics and the philosophy of physics
Maria Balcells
Associate Professor of Philosophy, Bucknell University
Studies the tension between our experience of time's passage and a static, block-universe picture of spacetime
Lila Davachi
Professor of Psychology, Yale University
Cognitive neuroscientist who studies how the brain segments continuous experience into lasting episodic memory
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