HPS
2675 Philosophy of Space and
Time Spring 2009
Phil 2660
| Week | Date | Topic/Reading | Presented by |
| 1 | Jan. 7 | Introduction | Earman and Norton |
| I. Philosophy Topics | |||
| 2 | Jan. 14 | McTaggart, “The Unreality of Time” Mind 18
(1908) 457-484. Mellor, H. Real Time II, Ch. 7 ("McTaggarts' Proof") (Routledge, 1998.) |
Julia Bursten (30 min) |
| Dyke, “McTaggart and the Truth About Time,” in C.
Callender (ed.) Time Reality and Experience (Cambridge UP,
2002). Dainton, Time and Space (McGill-Queen’s, 2001). Ch 2 (“McTaggart on time’sunreality”). |
Elay Shech (30 min) | ||
| Discussion A-Series vs B-Series |
All (60 min) | ||
| 3 | Jan. 21 | Gödel, “A Remark about the Relationship between Relativity
Theory and Idealistic Philosophy,” in P. A. Schilpp (ed.),
Albert Einstein: Philosopher Scientist. Earman, Bangs, Crunches, etc., Appendix to Ch. 6 (“Gödel and the Ideality of Time”). Handout: Goedel's Argument for the Ideality of Time (John Earman) |
John Earman |
| Belot, “Dust, Time, and Symmetry,” British Journal for the Philosophy of Science56 (2005): 255-91. | Bryan Roberts | ||
| 4 | Jan. 28 | The growing block universe | |
| Broad, Scientific Thought, Ch. 2 (“The General Problem
of Time and Change”). Earman, “Reassessing the Prospects of a Growing Block Model of the Universe,” pre-print. |
John Earman | ||
| Putnam, “Time and Physical Geometry,” Journal of Philosophy 64 (1967):240-247. | Jennifer Jhun | ||
| 5 | Feb. 4 | Is relativity theory incompatible with becoming? | |
| Stein, “On Relativity Theory and the Openness of the Future,” Philosophy of Science 58 (1991): 147-167. | Will Lebing | ||
| Clifton and Hogarth, “The Definability of Becoming in Minkowski Spacetime,” Synthese 103 (1995): 355-387. | Elay Shech | ||
| Callender, Shedding Light on Time,” Philosophy of Science 67 (Proceedings): S587-599. | Tom Pashby | ||
| 6 | Feb. 11 | Endurantism vs. perdurantism
Butterfield, “The Rotating Disk Argument Defeated,” British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 57 (2006): 1-45. |
John Norton |
| Explaining our sense of the ‘nowness’ of time
Callender, Craig “The Common Now,” Philosophical Issues, 18, Interdisciplinary Core Philosophy, 2008, pp. 339-61. |
Devan Goldstein | ||
| II. Philosophy of Physics Topics | |||
| 7 | Feb. 18 | Time versus Space | |
| Skow, “The Difference between Space and Time,” Noûs 41 (2007): 227-252. | Tom Pashby | ||
| Callender, “What Makes Time Special?” http://fqxi.org/community/forum/category/10 | Balazs Gyenis | ||
| I. Philosophy Topics (again for just a week) | |||
| 8 | Feb. 25 | Presentism vs. eternalism vs. historicism: Is there a real debate? | |
| No
Meyer, “The Presentist’s Dilemma,” Philosophical Studies 122 (2005): 213-225. Background reading Callender, “Time’s Ontic Voltage,” pre-print. Doroto, “The Irrelevance of the Presentist/Eternalist Debate for the Ontology of Minkowski Spacetime,” in D. Dieks (ed), The Ontology of Spacetime I (Elsevier, 2006). Savitt, “Presentism and Eternalism in Perspective,” in Dieks (ed) op. cit. |
John Norton | ||
| Yes
Sider, Fourdimensionalism (Oxford UP, 2001). Ch. 2 (“Against Presentism”) Sider, “Quantifies and temporal Ontology,” Mind 115 (2006): 75-97. |
Julia Bursten | ||
| II. back to Philosophy of Physics Topics | |||
| 9 | Mar. 4 | Time Reversal Invariance | |
| Introduction "Time Reversal Invariance and Irreversibility" | John Earman | ||
| Albert, “Time Reversal Invariance,” Ch. 1 of Time and Chance (Harvard UP, 2000). | Jennifer Jhun | ||
| Mar. 11 | Spring Break | ||
| 10 | Mar. 18 | Malament, “On Time Reversal Invariance of Classical Electromagnetic Theory,” Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 35 (2004): 295-315. | Will Lebing |
| Introduction to Cosmic Time and Inflation (no reading) handout | Claus Beisbart | ||
| 11 | Mar. 25 | Boltzmann, the entropic arrow, and the past hypothesis | |
| Statistical Mechanics 001 handout, more handout | John Norton | ||
| Entropy and the Second Law handout | John Earman | ||
| Albert, Time and Chance, Ch. 4 (“The Reversibility Objections and the Past- Hypothesis”) | Elay Shech | ||
| 12 | April 1 | The past hypothesis critically examined | |
| Price, "The Origins of Time's Arrow: Why There Is Still a Puzzle
about the Low Entropy Past" in C. Hitchcock (ed.), Contemporary
Debates in Philosophy of Science. Callender, “There Is No Puzzle about the Low Entropy Past,” ibid. |
Julia Bursten | ||
| Winsberg, Eric, “Can Conditioning on the Past Hypothesis Militate Against the Reversibility Objections?” Philosophy of Science 71 (2004): 489-504. | Bryan Roberts | ||
| April 1 | Term paper topic due | ||
| 13 | April 8 | The electromagnetic arrow | |
| Frisch, “A Tale of Two Arrows,” Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 37 (2006): 542-558. | Will Lebing | ||
| Earman, “Sharpening the Electromagnetic Arrow of Time,” pre-print. handout | John Earman | ||
| 14 | April 15 | ||
| Carlo Rovelli, "Forget Time" http://fqxi.org/community/forum/topic/237 | Thomas Pashby | ||
| The CPT theorem "Trying to make sense of the CPT theorem" handout Followup handout on senses of time reversal. Arntzenius, Frank and Greaves, Hilary (2007) "Time reversal in classical electromagnetism. " http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/archive/00003280/ Greaves, Hilary (2007) "Towards a geometrical understanding of the CPT theorem." http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/archive/00003676/ Useful application: Curing diseases through violations of time reversal invariance. |
John Norton | ||
| Friday, April 24 | Term paper due. Two hard copies by noon in 1017CL or e-versions emailed to the two Johns by 5pm. |