is an eight-week interdisciplinary seminar series designed to provide digestible lectures on topics of physics and philosophy.

This event has three primary aims:

First, to present and explore ‘hot’ topics in physics and philosophy at a level accessible to interested minds from all backgrounds.

Second, to combat/alleviate academic myopia by highlighting how seemingly distinct fields are inextricably intertwined, encouraging academic breadth in thought.

And, finally, to foster not only discourse but a sense of community between departments, faculty, and students.

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Why Topics on Physics and Philosophy?

Since the dawn of time, the disciplines of physics, philosophy and mathematics have been involved in a long standing intellectual partnership (we presume dinosaurs took to a playful plight in philosophical discourse whilst calculating the rate the meteors were headed towards them).

Physics, without philosophical consideration, risks losing its depth and curiosity, while philosophy, without logical reasoning, fails to root its seeds in solid ground. It is no coincidence that history’s most notable philosophers and physicists were involved in polymathy, navigating between conceptual analysis and empirical investigation.

This tradition flourished across centuries — from the ancient Greeks like Archimedes and Hypatia who advanced mathematical theory and natural philosophy, to Persian scholars like Al-Khwarizmi and Omar Khayyam who developed algebraic methods while contemplating universal harmony and the nature of existence. Continuing through mediaeval periods, great minds cascaded through periods of renaissance and enlightenment, with figures like Leibniz, Descartes, and Émilie du Châtelet, revolutionising mathematical understanding and philosophical thought. Despite modern tendency towards niche specialization, this putative and historical intellectual pattern remains an emergent phenomenum, preserved through contemporary thinkers like Simone de Beauvoir and Laura Bassi. Such historically integrated approaches to scientific and philosophical inquiry is what we aim to celebrate and promote through Mind & Matter.