VICTOR SUCHAR LECTURE

WHAT IS A THING?
QUANTUM THEORY & THE CONCEPT OF REALITY

PROF. CHRISTOPHER ISHAM
Imperial College, London

Saturday, 15 March 2008, 7.30pm
The lecture starts at 7:30 and the reception at 6:30pm

This profound question occupied the minds of Ancient Greece, and it is one to which they afforded the greatest respect. Most modern philosophers would deem the question meaningless, and no doubt they would say the same of the concept of `reality`, and yet this very question  - ‘What is a thing?’- lies at the heart of the on-going debate about meaning and scope of quantum theory. In particular, can quantum theory only ever deal with ‘things-as-they-appear-to-us’  or can the ‘thingness of the thing’ be addressed directly.