Steven Weinstein
Assistant Professor

PhD, MA, Northwestern University
AB, Princeton University

Office: HH 319
Extension: 33632
Email: sw@uwaterloo.ca
Webpage:http://watarts.uwaterloo.ca/~sw/

Areas of Interest
Philosophy of Science (esp. Philosophy of Physics), Computation and Information

Academic Biography
My early work was primarily on quantum gravity. My dissertation looked at the conceptual problems which arise when attempting to "quantize" spacetime. Among these is the notorious "problem of time", whereby the time-evolution of the quantum state of the universe appears to disappear. Several papers followed from this work, exploring various aspects in more detail. I then began a critical investigation into what are arguably subjective or anthropocentric notions in physics, especially entropy, and also the notion of causality and even determinism. I continue to work on entropy, attempting to understand it in the context of gravitational physics in order to understand its extension to cosmology and the cosmological arrow of time, but my primary focus at present is on the conceptual possibility and physical plausibility of multiple time dimensions, and on the plausibility of novel relativistic models of quantum phenomena.

Selected Publications
Anthropic reasoning in multiverse cosmology. Classical and Quantum Gravity 23, 4231-4236 (2006).
Superluminal signaling and relativity. Synthese 148, 2: 381-399 (January 2006).
Naive quantum gravity. In Philosophy at the Planck Scale, edited by Craig Callender and Nicholas Huggett, Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, 2000, 90-100.
Gravity and gauge theory. Philosophy of Science 66, 3: S146-S155 (September 1999).
Strange couplings and space-time structure. Philosophy of Science 63, 3: S63-S70 (September 1996).
Undermind. Synthese 106: 241-251 (February 1996).

Selected Grants, Fellowships & Awards
SSHRC Standard Research Grant, “Multiple Time Dimensions,” 2007-2010.

Current Research
Prof. Weinstein is currently working on
- multiple time dimensions
- causality and determinism in relativistic classical and quantum physics
- the arrow of time

Recent Graduate Supervision and Teaching

PhD Research Courses, Seminars, and Areas

• Scientific Realism
• Philosophy of Physics