PERSP Space & Time Workshop on the Open Future. Barcelona 1-2 December 2011.

Some of the questions that will be addressed in the workshop include:

-What does it mean to claim that the future is open?
-Are future contingent statements like "There will be a sea battle tomorrow" now true or false?
-Is the claim that future contingents are now true or false compatible with the claim that the future is open?
-What is the relation between future contingents and future ontology?
-What metaphysical picture is required in order to make sense of the claim that the future is open? Multiple, branching futures? A ‘thin red line’? Metaphysical indeterminacy? Presentism?

Speakers:
Corine Besson, Birkbeck
Craig Bourne, Hertfordshire
Emily Caddick, Cambridge & Birkbeck
Joseph Diekemper, Queen's
Antony Eagle, Oxford
Graeme A. Forbes, Sheffield 
Anandi Hattiangadi, Oxford
Ned Markosian, Western Washington
Meghan Sullivan, Notre Dame
Robbie Williams, Leeds

PROVISIONAL PROGRAM

Thursday Dec 1

10:00-11:30 Craig Bourne (Hertfordshire) & Emily Caddick (Cambridge & Birkbeck): "The Fictional Future"; comments by Chiara Panizza (UB)

11:30-11:45 Coffee break

11:45-13:15 Corine Besson (Birkbeck) & Anandi Hattiangadi (Oxford): "The Open Future, Bivalence and Assertion"; comments by Max Kölbel (ICREA-UB)

13:15-15:00 Lunch

15:00-16:30 Graeme A Forbes (Sheffield): "Open but not Gaping"; comments by Giuliano Torrengo (UB)

16:30-17:00 Coffee break

17:00-18:30 Antony Eagle (Oxford): "The Open Future"; comments by Moritz Schulz (UB)

20:30 Dinner

Friday Dec 2

10:00-11:30 Meghan Sullivan (Notre Dame): “Change We Can Believe In (and Assert)”; comments by Bryan Pickel (UB)

11:30-11:45 Coffee break

11:45-13:15 Robert Williams (Leeds): "Believing in an Open Future", comments by Manolo Martínez (UB)

13:15-15:00 Lunch

15:00-16:30  Ned Markosian (Western Washington): "A Branching-Time Solution to the Truthmaker Problem for Presentism"; comments by Pablo Rychter (València)

20:30 Dinner

Venue: Residència d'Investigadors, c/Hospital 64, 08001, Barcelona.

The workshop will have a 'read-ahead' format. Papers available here (password protected). 

Those interested in attending should contact persp.management@gmail.com

Organized by Dan López de Sa & Stephan Torre, sponsored by PERSP.