About us

The birth of modern Galilean and Newtonian physics has laid the basis for a conceptual revolution whose extent has gone far beyond the field of natural sciences, so that Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, appeared little less than a century after the Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, can be considered as an indirect and mature fruit of that deep cultural change.

The twentieth century physics – from Special and General Relativity, and the ensuing cosmological developments, up to Quantum Mechanics and Field Theory – has brought so many theoretical novelties to induce a conceptual change with epistemological implications much more radical than the Galilean and Newtonian scientific revolution.

An overview on the latest philosophical discussions on physics and contemporary debates on foundations seems to suggest that, on the one hand, the philosophical consequences of the new theories have not been sufficiently clarified, yet, and, on the other hand, the epistemological and foundational open issues still leave room to further analyses and to the formulation of alternative theories. Therefore, we are still in a phase of deep changes which deserve to be carefully investigated.

The Center was constituted in 1995 by the Universities of Bologna and Urbino, then extended to Cesena City Council and to the Universities of Salento and Insubria, with the purpose of favouring and promoting frontier research in interdisciplinary fields like:

• Philosophical foundations of physics;
• Epistemological implications of physical theories;
• Logical-mathematical investigation on physics principles;
• Critical studies in history of physics aimed to conceptual clarification of ideas.

Directive Council: Gino Tarozzi (Director), Vincenzo Fano and Isabella Tassani (Secretary), Università di Urbino; Fabrizio Bonoli and Barbara Pecori, Università di Bologna; Fabio Minazzi and Ugo Moschella, Università dell'Insubria; Mario Castellana and Arcangelo Rossi, Università del Salento; Franco Pollini, Comune di Cesena.

Scientific Council: Evandro Agazzi (Città del Messico), Mario Alai (Urbino), Mario Bunge (Montreal), Claudio Garola (Salento), Michel Ghins (Lovanio), Wilhem D. Hackmann (Oxford), Roland Omnès (Paris), Michel Paty (Strasburgo), Jürgen Renn (Berlin), Franco Selleri (Bari), William R. Shea (Padova), Alwyn van der Merwe (Denver), Gianni Zanarini (Bologna).

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