Fri
01
Dec
Seminars and Conferences
Quantum mechanics and reality: a challenge to common sense
On 1 December 2023, in the Aula Magna "G. Agnelli" of the Politecnico, Federico Laudisa and Angelo Bassi will discuss the relationship between Quantum Mechanics and representations of reality from a scientific and philosophical perspective: Quantum Mechanics describes matter in terms of waves. Quantum waves, like all waves, can scatter and give rise to superposition and interference phenomena. However, when observed, the waves disappear, and matter appears solid and compact as we commonly know it. Even more mysteriously, quantum waves manifest distant correlations that defy common sense: these are the correlations related to the phenomenon of entanglement, which have no counterpart in classical physics. For these reasons, Quantum Mechanics poses a challenge to the image of the world we have constructed for ourselves, based on common sense. The conceptual foundations of the theory will be presented and the disruptive effects it has also had from a philosophical point of view will be analysed.
Angelo Bassi - Full Professor of Physics at the University of Trieste
Angelo Bassi graduated in Physics at the University of Trieste. In 2001 he received his PhD in Physics. Subsequently he was Post-Doctoral Fellow and Visiting Scientist at the ICTP of Trieste, and Marie-Curie Fellow at the Ludwig-Maximillian University of Munich. He is now full professor at the Physics Department of the University of Trieste. His research concerns the fundamentals of quantum mechanics. He is the author of over 150 publications in international journals, invited speaker at over 70 international conferences, organizer of 30 conferences. He has been invited to present his research in the most important institutes in the world (including MIT, Harvard, Columbia University, NYU, Princeton). He is the winner and coordinator of numerous national and international research projects. He was Chair of COST Shares “Fundamental Problems in Quantum Physics” and “Quantum Technologies in Space”. He was interviewed by New York Time Magazine with a dedicated profile (June 2020), by “Le Scienze” (April 2021), and several other international scientific magazines. The newspaper “La Repubblica” dedicated a longform (October 2021). Now he is collaborator of Repubblica, for which he writes about Quantum Physics and Quantum Technologies.
Federico Laudisa - Associate Professor at the University of Trento, Department of Humanities and Philosophy
Federico Laudisa graduated in Philosophy at the University of Florence. In 1996 he received his PhD in Philosophy at the Department of Philosophy of the University of Florence. He received research fellowships from the University of Padua and the University of Florence and a CNR-NATO fellowship for research at the University of Budapest, and he has been appointed associate professor in 2001 at the University of Milan-Bicocca. He has given courses also at the University Vita-Salute San Raffaele in Milan and the University of Bologna, and since 2019 he is associate professor of Logic and Philosophy of Science ate the Department of Humanities and Philosophy of the University of Trento. He received the national scientific habilitation for full professorship in the sector 11/C2 – Logic, History and Philosophy of Science. He presented his research in several departments, both of philosophy and physics, and several research instirutions in Italy and abroad (Cambridge, Paris, Amsterdam, Cracovia, Toronto, Bielefeld, Lisbon, Lausanne). His research focuses on the philosophy of natural sciences, with a special attention to modern physics. He published the books Hume (Carocci 2009), La causalità (Carocci 2010), Naturalismo. Filosofia, scienza, mitologia (Laterza 2014), Albert Einstein e l’immagine scientifica del mondo (Carocci 2015), La realtà al tempo dei quanti. Einstein, Bohr e la nuova immagine del mondo (Bollati Boringhieri 2019), Dalla fisica alla filosofia naturale. Niels Bohr e la cultura scientifica del Novecento (Bollati Boringhieri 2023), as well as several papers in history and philosophy of science in the most relevant Italian and international journals in the field.
Event organised as part of Aspettando Biennale 2024
Angelo Bassi - Full Professor of Physics at the University of Trieste
Angelo Bassi graduated in Physics at the University of Trieste. In 2001 he received his PhD in Physics. Subsequently he was Post-Doctoral Fellow and Visiting Scientist at the ICTP of Trieste, and Marie-Curie Fellow at the Ludwig-Maximillian University of Munich. He is now full professor at the Physics Department of the University of Trieste. His research concerns the fundamentals of quantum mechanics. He is the author of over 150 publications in international journals, invited speaker at over 70 international conferences, organizer of 30 conferences. He has been invited to present his research in the most important institutes in the world (including MIT, Harvard, Columbia University, NYU, Princeton). He is the winner and coordinator of numerous national and international research projects. He was Chair of COST Shares “Fundamental Problems in Quantum Physics” and “Quantum Technologies in Space”. He was interviewed by New York Time Magazine with a dedicated profile (June 2020), by “Le Scienze” (April 2021), and several other international scientific magazines. The newspaper “La Repubblica” dedicated a longform (October 2021). Now he is collaborator of Repubblica, for which he writes about Quantum Physics and Quantum Technologies.
Federico Laudisa - Associate Professor at the University of Trento, Department of Humanities and Philosophy
Federico Laudisa graduated in Philosophy at the University of Florence. In 1996 he received his PhD in Philosophy at the Department of Philosophy of the University of Florence. He received research fellowships from the University of Padua and the University of Florence and a CNR-NATO fellowship for research at the University of Budapest, and he has been appointed associate professor in 2001 at the University of Milan-Bicocca. He has given courses also at the University Vita-Salute San Raffaele in Milan and the University of Bologna, and since 2019 he is associate professor of Logic and Philosophy of Science ate the Department of Humanities and Philosophy of the University of Trento. He received the national scientific habilitation for full professorship in the sector 11/C2 – Logic, History and Philosophy of Science. He presented his research in several departments, both of philosophy and physics, and several research instirutions in Italy and abroad (Cambridge, Paris, Amsterdam, Cracovia, Toronto, Bielefeld, Lisbon, Lausanne). His research focuses on the philosophy of natural sciences, with a special attention to modern physics. He published the books Hume (Carocci 2009), La causalità (Carocci 2010), Naturalismo. Filosofia, scienza, mitologia (Laterza 2014), Albert Einstein e l’immagine scientifica del mondo (Carocci 2015), La realtà al tempo dei quanti. Einstein, Bohr e la nuova immagine del mondo (Bollati Boringhieri 2019), Dalla fisica alla filosofia naturale. Niels Bohr e la cultura scientifica del Novecento (Bollati Boringhieri 2023), as well as several papers in history and philosophy of science in the most relevant Italian and international journals in the field.
Event organised as part of Aspettando Biennale 2024
1 December 2023 at 9,00 pm
Aula Magna “Giovanni Agnelli” - Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, Torino