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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鈥檚 Theory of General Relativity.
Provisional Syllabus:
Week 1: Zeno鈥檚 paradoxes and the Aristotelian conception of space and time
Week 2: The Copernican revolution
Week 3: Descartes鈥� physics
Week 4: Newtonian physics
Week 5: The Leibniz-Clarke debate
Week 7: Substantivalism vs. relationalism: modern approaches
Week 6: Kant鈥檚 views on space and time
Week 8: Poincare and the conventionality of geometry
Week 9: Lorentz鈥檚 ether theory and Einstein鈥檚 theory of special relativity
Week 10: General Relativity and the hole argument
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Primary Text:
Huggett, Nick (1999):听Space: From Zeno to Einstein
Background Reading:
Maudlin, Tim (2012):听Philosophy of Physics: Space and Time
Cushing, James (2012):听Philosophical Concepts in Physics
Geroch, Robert (1978):听General 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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