Valia Allori
Assistant Professor
of Philosophy, Northern Illinois University
Zulaf Hall 920, Dekalb, 60115
IL
Phone: 815 753 6412 (office) , E-mail: vallori@niu.edu
Education
Ph.D. (Philosophy) Rutgers 2007
Ph. D. (Physics) University of Genova 2001
M.A. (Physics) University of Milano1997
Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Physics, Metaphysics
Overview:
Valia Allori has studied physics and philosophy first in Italy, her home country, and then in the United States. She has worked in the foundations of quantum mechanics, in particular in the framework of Bohmian mechanics, a quantum theory without observers. Her main concern has always been to understand what the world is really like and how we can use our best physical theory to answer such general metaphysical questions. In her physics doctoral dissertation, she discussed the classical limit of quantum mechanics, to analyze the connections between the quantum and the classical theories. What does it mean that a theory, in a certain approximation, reduces to another? Is the classical explanation of macroscopic phenomena essentially different from the one provided by quantum mechanics? In her philosophy doctoral dissertation she turned to more general questions that involve the structure of fundamental physical theories, the metaphysical status and the epistemological role of the theoretical entities used in these theories. Do all fundamental physical theories have the very same structure, contrarily to what one might think? If so, what is this telling us about the nature of explanation? She has worked mainly in collaboration with Detlef Duerr, Sheldon Goldstein, Roderich Tumulka and Nino Zanghi in Bohmian mechanics, writing several articles with them. She is also co-author of a book on the philosophy and foundations of physics, written in Italian, together with Mauro Dorato, Federico Laudisa and Nino Zanghi. The book, "La Natura delle Cose" (The Nature of Things), has been written mainly for a philosophy or a physics student who is interested in the main problems of the theory of relativity, statistical mechanics, quantum theory and causation, but it might be accessible, even if with some effort, by an interested reader.
Curriculum vitae (HTML) (PDF)
Research activity
Personal background
People
Conferences
Teaching
For more details on Valia's research and personal interest, see her personal web page.
Publications:
Book
- "La
Natura delle Cose: Introduzione ai Fondamenti e alla Filosofia della Fisica",
(transl.: ``The Nature of Things: Introduction to the Philosophy and the
Foundation of Physics"), with M. Dorato, F. Laudisa, N. Zanghi. Carocci eds.,
Articles (Philosophy)
- "Many-Worlds and Schroedinger's First Quantum Theory" . The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, to appear. (with S. Goldstein, R. Tumulka, and N. Zanghi).
- "On the Classical Limit of Quantum Mechanics". Foundations of Physics, 10.1007/s10701-008-9259-4. (with Nino Zanghi)
- "On the Common Structure of Bohmian Mechanics and the Ghirardi-Rimini-Weber Theory". The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 59 (3), 353-389 (2008). (with S. Goldstein, R. Tumulka, and N. Zanghi)
- "Ontologie Quantistiche di Particelle, Campi e Lampi" (transl.: "Quantum Ontologies of Particles, Fields and Flashes"). E. Fano and M. Antonelli (eds.), "Strutture dello spazio tra fisica e psicologia", Teorie e Modelli, XII, III. 9-29 (2007). (with N. Zanghi)
- "Puo' la Descrizione Quanto-Meccanica della Realta' Fisica Essere Considerata Completa?" (transl.: "Can Quantum-Mechanical Description of Physical Reality Be Considered Complete?"). Il Protagora vol. 9, 163-180 (2007). (with N. Zanghi)
- "What is Bohmian Mechanics". International Journal of Theoretical Physics 43, 1743-1755 (2004.)(with N. Zanghi)
- "Seven
Steps Toward the Classical World" . Journal of Optics
B 4, 482–488 (2002). (with D. Duerr, S. Goldstein,