Description
This module covers topics in the epistemology and metaphysics of space and time: How does one gain empirical access to spacetime? What is the relationship between motion and spacetime? Is spacetime substantival or relational? Is geometry conventional? We will look at these topics through a historical lens, starting with views about space and time in Ancient Greece and ending with Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity.
Provisional Syllabus:
Week 1: Zeno’s paradoxes and the Aristotelian conception of space and time
Week 2: The Copernican revolution
Week 3: Descartes’ physics
Week 4: Newtonian physics
Week 5: The Leibniz-Clarke debate
Week 7: Substantivalism vs. relationalism: modern approaches
Week 6: Kant’s views on space and time
Week 8: Poincare and the conventionality of geometry
Week 9: Lorentz’s ether theory and Einstein’s theory of special relativity
Week 10: General Relativity and the hole argument
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Primary Text:
Huggett, Nick (1999):ÌýSpace: From Zeno to Einstein
Background Reading:
Maudlin, Tim (2012):ÌýPhilosophy of Physics: Space and Time
Cushing, James (2012):ÌýPhilosophical Concepts in Physics
Geroch, Robert (1978):ÌýGeneral Relativity from A to B
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Philosophy Area A
Module deliveries for 2024/25 academic year
Last updated
This module description was last updated on 19th August 2024.
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