Tim Maudlin: What Makes a Good and Clear Theory of the World?

Dr. Tim Maudlin is an internationally-renowned physicist and philosopher of science at New York University. He is known for the clarity of his thought, above all in the foundations of physics. Maudlin has undergraduate degrees in physics and philosophy from Yale University and a PhD from the Univ. of Pittsburgh. His books, released by the world’s most respected publishing houses, include "Quantum Non-Locality and Relativity", "Truth and Paradox", "The Metaphysics Within Physics", and two volumes of "Philosophy of Physics". In addition, his "New Foundations for Physical Geometry" has received wide acclaim as a novel mathematical approach to a better understanding of space-time.

Dr. Maudlin is a member of the International Academy of the Philosophy of the Sciences and the Foundational Questions Institute (FQXi). He has been a Guggenheim Fellow, taught at Rutgers for many years and has been a visiting lecturer at Harvard. He is also founder and director of the John Bell Institute for the Foundation of Physics.

Relevant links:

Please contribute to Maudlin's fight for the foundations of physics by visiting the following:

John Bell Institute Go Fund Me page: https://tinyurl.com/f8nnpmsn
Interview web page: https://eism.eu/tim-maudlin/
Maudlin's personal website: http://www.tim-maudlin.site.
Maudlin's NYU page: https://tinyurl.com/y2beyfhw
Maudlin's books: https://tinyurl.com/5n7t69vp
The Aharanov-Bohm Effect: https://tinyurl.com/2ercss3s
Maudlin corrects the Nobel Prize Committe:    • Tim Maudlin Corrects the 2022 Nobel Physic...  


Time Stamp:

00:28 -- Preliminary comments - why listen to this video?
02:49 -- Introduction of Maudlin
04:28 -- Tim Maudlin & Bernardo Kastrup Confrontation
13:16 -- Why the Maudlin-Kastrup confrontation matters
14:00 -- Maudlin on "ground zero" in quantum theory
20:51 -- Maudlin's objection to the word "interpretation" in physics
33:04 -- Maudlin on Michelson-Morley,Einstein, & special relativity
41:56 -- Back to what theory-building and postulates matter
43:56 -- How do we evaluate / assess various physical theories?
47:24 -- How much credence should I give to a theory?
50:35 -- The historcal rejection of "foundational questions" in academia
53:45 -- Yakir Aharanov as an exception to the rule
56:23 -- How the above led to the foundation of the John Bell Institute
57:55 -- Is the tide turning in favor of foundational questions in physics?
1:01:05 -- Physics as the foundation of clarity and every discipline
1:03:50 -- Maudlin doubts the utility of foundational questions
1:07:40 -- Is Maudlin a consequentialist in physical theories?
1:10:20 -- The peril of basing values and ethics on physics
1:12:05 -- Maudlin's platonist mathemetics, ethics, and physics
1:13:15 -- Physics, voting theory, and Arrow's Impossibility Theorem
1:14:55 -- Maudlin explains the John Bell Institute project
1:21:30 -- Maudlin on the requirements of a good physical theory
1:25:29 -- Maudlin's opinion on "emergent" spacetime
1:27:30 -- What advantages does discrete spacetime provide?
1:34:00 -- Clarification on foliation in a discrete spacetime
1:40:00 -- How would relativity emerge from discrete spacetime?
1:47:20 -- Maudlin on the Aharnov-Bohm effect & discrete spacetime