2024 Du Châtelet Prize in Philosophy of Physics

Second call for submissions:

Submissions are invited for the 2024 Du Châtelet Prize in Philosophy of Physics

Topic: Physics in the writings of 19^th century women

Deadline: September 8^th, 2024

Submissions are invited on the writings of women in the nineteenth century that discuss or otherwise engage with the concepts, foundations, or methods of any area of physics, or with the nature and scope of physics itself. The topic should be construed broadly to include: any genre in which the women were writing; “physics” as understood then and/or now; both the experimental and the theoretical; and physics in relation to other areas of inquiry. Submissions may address the work of a single figure or multiple figures. We are interested in any work that from today’s perspective might be viewed as a contribution to philosophy of physics in the 19^th century.

The winner will receive $1000, an invitation to participate in a workshop on the topic of this year’s prize, and an invitation to have their paper considered for publication in Studies in History and Philosophy of Science. The prize is open to graduate students and to scholars within 5 years of PhD as of the submission deadline. Submissions should not exceed 10,000 words.

The deadline for submissions is September 8^th, 2024 (midnight GMT). For more details of the prize and of submission requirements, see below.

The Du Châtelet Prize in Philosophy of Physics is supported by Duke University and Studies in History and Philosophy of Science.

Committee

The members of this year’s prize committee are:

Katherine Brading, Professor of Philosophy, Duke University
Joshua Eisenthal, Research Assistant Professor of Philosophy, California Institutue of Technology, and 2020 Du Châtelet Prize winner
Samuel C. Fletcher, Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities; from Sept. 1, Professor of Philosophy of Physics, University of Oxford
Lydia Patton, Professor of Philosophy, Virginia Tech
Jennifer Whyte, Postdoctoral Associate in Philosophy, Duke University

Workshop

A workshop honoring this year’s prize winner, and including talks by members of the committee, will be held at Duke University on November 8-9, 2024. If you would like to join the mailing list to receive registration information for this workshop, please email Katherine Brading at katherine.brading@duke.edu.

Submission requirements

Submissions must be in English
Submissions must be prepared for blind review
Submissions must be no longer than 10,000 words in length, including footnotes and references
Submitted work must be unpublished and must not be under consideration for publication

The submission portal can be found here: https://www.duchateletprize.org. If you have questions, please contact Katherine Brading (katherine.brading@duke.edu).

More information about the prize

The Du Châtelet Prize in Philosophy of Physics celebrates excellence in philosophy of physics and promotes breadth across the field both historically and philosophically. Each year, a prize committee of scholars in the field invites submissions on a particular topic. The prize winner receives feedback and support from the committee, and the paper is considered for publication in Studies. The goals of the prize are to support young scholars working in philosophy of physics, to strengthen the historical and philosophical breadth of the field, and to promote some of the very best work being done by students and junior scholars.

Submissions are considered under blind review. Should a possible conflict of interest be recognized, committee members are recused accordingly.

2023 Winner: Marta Bielinska and Caspar Jacobs “A Philosophical Introduction to Hidden Symmetries in Physics”

Topic: Laws and symmetries in the practice of physics

Committee: Elena Castellani, Nina Emery, Bas van Fraassen, Marc Lange, with input from Nancy Cartwright

2022 Winner: Ovidiu Babeș “Mixed Mathematics and Metaphysical Physics: Descartes and the Mechanics of the Flow of Water”

Topic: Descartes’s Metaphysical Physics

Committee: Roger Ariew, Dan Garber, Dana Jalobeanu, Alison Peterman, and Sophie Roux

2021 Winners: Jamee Elder “The ‘Direct Detection’ of Gravitational Waves” and Miguel Ohnesorge “Pluralizing Measurement: Physical Geodesy’s Measurement Problem and its Resolution”, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 96 51-67. 2022.

Topic: Measurement practices in the physical sciences: correlation, calibration and stabilization

Committee: Alisa Bokulich, Hasok Chang, Daniel Mitchell, and Wendy Parker

2020 Winner: Joshua Eisenthal “Hertz’s Mechanics and a unitary notion of force”, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 90 226-234. 2021.
Topic: Mathematics as a tool of conceptual innovation in physical theory and/or experiment, 1780-1890.
Committee: Katherine Brading, Janet Folina, Doreen Fraser, Lydia Patton and Sheldon Smith2019 Winner: Adwait Parker “Newton on Active and Passive Quantities of Matter”, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 84 1-11. 2020.
Topic: “How the parts of matter act on one another, as that issue stood at any time in the period 1680-1780”
Committee: Katherine Brading, Mary Domski, Andrew Janiak, Chris Smeenk, George Smith

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