PROTEUS produced conceptual innovation in philosophy and fundamental physics, by identifying new central objects of enquiry produced in current quantum cosmology and quantum gravity (e.g. phase transitions, emergent space and emergent time) and by assessing whether and how they are able to produce a ground-breaking view with respect to previous models in portraying the conditions of possibility to think of a process that is not in time. The innovative methodology of PROTEUS consisted in showing the relevance of the history of philosophy to reach this goal. Indeed, Plato's and Kant's philosophy represent milestones to understand the conceptual underpinnings of our notions of time and its paradoxes in cosmology and their study disclose alternative strategies that one can pursue in modeling time and, more importantly, timelessness in fundamental physics. A more complex understanding of atemporality is needed in current foundations of physics, if one wants to avoid circularity or paradoxes in some Quantum Gravity approaches and in modeling black holes.
In 66 months PROTEUS achieved several objectives by relying on a research team that is a leader group in applying new research methods pursued by the actual interaction set up with historians of philosophy and physicists.
PROTEUS has also shown that philosphy is necessarily complementary to theoretical cosmology and quantum gravity, as emerges in the publications of the group and the continuous interaction with physicists.
PROTEUS ensured high impact on the two subfields of the history of philosophy of workspaces I and II, namely Plato and Kant studies, by offering a systematic interpretation of Plato’s and Kant’s works according to the hypothesis advanced by the project. More than 30 research outputs as journal articles, books and monographs have been realized spanning from the history of ancient philosophy to the philosophy of physics, the foundations of quantum gravity and cosmology.
Among the tangible results of PROTEUS, one finds the creation of the Digital Archive "Timaeus and Its Legacy" and the creation of a software to perform AI-base semantic search through multi-language texts from different epochs. Furthermore, the series of conferences on the History and Philosophy fo Cosmology and the creation of a network of cosmologists, philosophers and historians (COSMOS Network) have been created and the network counts on several collaborations worldwide. The videos of PROTEUS seminar series published on our website and our YouTube channel constitute a virtual library that is available for the next generations.
