Jenann Ismael

I specialize in the Philosophy of Physics but the distinction between physics and philosophy is soft if you work on the kinds of issues that I do. Like all of the great systematic philosophers of the past, physics aspires to provide an account of the universe and our place in it. It is partial and provisional, with pockets of well worked out structure, but also large holes, places where the sharp edges aren’t lining up and horizons beyond which we can’t see. It has the advantage over traditional metaphysics of being built on a mountain of data and distilled into a mathematical form that makes it at once surveyable and precise enough to be testable and is fertile ground for someone interested in big questions. It is full of surprising revelations, deep puzzles and unsettled mysteries. Much of my work has focused on the mysteries: places where it is confronting problems that are squarely philosophical: e.g., what is time? how does it differ from space? How does the past differ from the future? What can we know? Do we have free will? What is the nature of mind? What are we and how do we fit into the material world?