Hans Halvorson Physics, Logic, Philosophy

Talks

Slides from talks and lectures. The TeX and (Q)MD files are the source for the decks (Beamer and Quarto/Reveal.js respectively) — feel free to re-use them.

Open workshop: I use standard open-source tools to write these, e.g. pandoc. I’ve also played around with creating some further tools to simplify the process: nordisk (write Beamer slide decks in Markdown) and diagrams (for building the figures).

2026

Er musste das Wissen aufheben: van Fraassen on the priority of the manifest image
Schock Prize Symposium · Stockholm · June 2026
Equivalence: A Program
Conference on theoretical equivalence · Oslo · June 2026
Updating your religion
Reunions · Princeton · May 2026

2025

Niels Bohr on causal explanation
5th International Conference on the History of Quantum Physics · August 2025
Climacus' two ways of reflection
The epistemological significance of Kierkegaard's Climacus works · University of Southampton · May 2025
Brandes against dualism
University of Copenhagen · May 2025
Niels Bohr's philosophical background
Videnskabshistorisk Selskab · Copenhagen · April 2025
Defining determinism
Workshop: The Logic in Science · Venice · April 2025
What is a deterministic theory?
Radboud Center for Natural Philosophy · Nijmegen · January 2025
Equivalence – state of play
Workshop: Università della Svizzera italiana · 2025
Reduction redux
Department Colloquium: Università della Svizzera italiana · 2025

2024

On the unity of science
Forum Religionen im Kontext · Potsdam · December 2024
Mathematics is just more language
Meaning and Equivalence of Formal Theories · Vienna · December 2024
Equivalence in foundations
ASL Logic Colloquium · Göteborg · June 2024
Niels Bohr on the knowing subject
BOHR21 Workshop · Copenhagen · June 2024
The roots of Niels Bohr's thought
Workshop on Literature, Philosophy, and Science (Transformative Transmissions: German-Scandinavian Intellectual Communities 1790–1860) · Copenhagen · June 2024

2023

Was Rasmus Nielsen a windbag (as Kierkegaard said)?
Søren Kierkegaard Research Center · Copenhagen · November 2023
What models say
UC Irvine · October 2023
Contextualism in relativity and quantum theories
University of Stockholm · October 2023
Speaking about models
University of Konstanz · June 2023
Niels Bohr's values
University of Copenhagen · June 2023
Dispensing with the hole argument
Mathematics in Physics · Oslo · June 2023
The goal of formal analysis
The Formal Turn in Twentieth Century Thought · Vienna · February 2023
The concept of a reference frame
Physics meets Philosophy · Vienna · February 2023

2022

Mind independence
Cambridge-Copenhagen Symposium on Realism for Realistic People by Hasok Chang · June 2022

2019

Physics and the absolute conception
University of Illinois · September 2019
Objective description in physics
The International Congress of Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science and Technology · Prague · July 2019

2018

2-categories of theories
Conference on Category Theory in Philosophy of Science · LMU Munich · July 2018
Semantics and the god's eye view
Conference on Semantics of Science · University of Salzburg · June 2018
Wissenschaftslogik erneuert
LMU Munich · June 2018

2015

The invariant structure of equivalent theories
Rutgers University Philosophy Colloquium · April 2015