American University of Beirut

Wednesday, April 23​, 2025 at 12:00pm​​
West Hall, Auditorium B

Dismantling the Zionist Narrative​​​

Karam Wahab (Philosophy Instructor),
Majd Farhat (Undergraduate), Abdennour Atouani​ (Undergraduate)

Thursday, April 10​, 2025 at 5:30pm​​
Issam Fares Institute, Conference Room - 4th Floor​​​​

Philos​ophy of Science:
The Physicist's Perspective​​​

Mousa Mohammdian PhD - AUB​​

​​Richard Feynman famously remarked, “The philosophy of science is as useful to scientists as ornithology is to birds.” While this sentiment may be prevalent among physicists today, it stands in sharp contrast with the perspectives of many foundational figures in physics who engaged deeply with philosophical questions. In this talk, we will explore the philosophical views of renowned physicists such as Ernst Mach, Ludwig Boltzmann, Albert Einstein, and Jim Peebles, examining how their engagement with philosophy influenced their scientific work. Mach’s empiricism and rejection of unobservable entities led to fierce debates with Boltzmann over the reality of atoms, shaping the early development of statistical mechanics. Einstein’s philosophical reflections on space, time, and realism played a crucial role in the formulation of relativity, while Peebles, a key figure in modern cosmology, has emphasized the importance of philosophical perspectives in interpreting physical theories. By tracing these connections, we will reflect on the historical and ongoing relationship between physics and philosophy and consider whether Feynman’s skepticism about philosophy truly captures the role it has played in scientific progress.​

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