PHIL 328/4 B -- Contemporary Revolutions in Science: Space and Time

January 2010

Vesselin Petkov (vpetkov@alcor.concordia.ca)
Time:Tuesday, Thursday - 14:45-16:00
Room: H-401
Things are never quite the way they seem
Stannard Ridgway, Lyrics "Camouflage"



Course description:

This course deals with two major scientific revolutions - the Newtonian and the Einsteinian (with an emphasis on the latter) - and their philosophical implications for our understanding of space, time, causality, gravity, and the Universe. Some of the main topics we will discuss are: (i) the debate on the ontological status of space, (ii) the profound issue of the ontology and the nature of spacetime and why it is regarded by some philosophers and physicists as perhaps the greatest intellectual challenge, posed by science, that humankind has ever faced (subtopic - spacetime substantivalism vs. spacetime relationism), (iii) the physical meaning of the relativistic effects, (iv) temporal becoming and the theory of relativity, (v) relativistic causality, (vi) the dramatic evolution of our conceptual understanding of gravity - from gravitational attraction as a force to gravity as a manifestation of the curvature of spacetime, and (vii) spacetime curvature and cosmology.


Required texts:

1. V. Petkov, Relativity and the Nature of Spacetime 2nd ed. (Springer-Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg 2009); a copy of the first edition of the book (which can also be used) is in the Webster Library. It is also available in Concordia Bookstore.
2. Lecture notes and public domain texts which will be emailed to all.


Recommended texts:

1. G. F. R. Ellis and R. M. Williams, Flat and Curved Space-Times (Oxford University Press, Oxford 1988)
2. J. Earman, World Enough and Space-Time: Absolute versus Rational Theories of Space and Time (The MIT Press, Massachusetts 1992)
3. L. Sklar, Space, Time, and Spacetime (University of California Press, Berkeley 1977)

The term paper, which is necessary for the completion of this course, should demonstrate students' ability to analyze the issues they are writing on (mere descriptions should be avoided). All assignments must be typewritten double spaced. Papers are to be submitted on the due date. As the deadline is strict do not take the risk to write your papers at the last moment. Late submissions will result in lowering the grade by five marks per day (including holidays and weekends). As papers are not returned you should keep copies of your work.


Make sure to read what is required for an A grade, the requirements for research papers, and information on plagiarism.


Final grades are based on the following:

Mid-term exam (Thursday, March 4)............35%
Term paper (8-10 pages; due on April 8)......20%
Final exam....................................................45%

Office Hours:
Thursday 13:00 - 14:00, Liberal Arts College (2040 Mackay Street), Room RR-104.
Monday 13:00 - 14:00 in Room SP 365.01, Science College, Loyola Campus.


Recommended Links:

I. The FQXi (The Foundational Questions Institute) Essay Contest "The Nature of Time"
  1. "Time and Reality of Worldtubes" by Vesselin Petkov
  2. "On The Flow of Time" by George F. R. Ellis
  3. Other essays on the nature of time
Four related papers
  1. "On the Reality of Minkowski Space" by Vesselin Petkov
  2. "Physics in the Real Universe: Time and Spacetime" by George F. R. Ellis
  3. "Absolute Being vs Relative Becoming" by Joy Christian
  4. "Relativity theory does not imply that the future already exists: a counterexample" by Rafael D. Sorkin
Brian Greene's article The Time We Thought We Knew, The New York Times, January 1, 2004. Local file.

II. Other Links
  1. Heraclites: Fragments
  2. Parmenides - Fragments and Commentary
  3. Fragments of the "Way of Truth" by Parmenides of Elea
  4. Parmenides - Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  5. Zeno of Elea - Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  6. Zeno's paradoxes
  7. Zeno's Paradoxes
  8. Zeno and the Paradox of Motion
  9. Aristotle, Physics (all books) - see Book VI, Parts 9 (Aristotle's solution of Zeno's paradox - time is not composed of indivisible moments); local file
  10. Aristotle, Physics, Book VI (Part 2: every magnitude is divisible into magnitudes; Part 3: the present is necessarily indivisible); local file.
  11. Aristotle, Physics (all books) - see Book IV, Parts 13 (the indivisible present 'now'); local file
  12. Aristotle's Works
  13. Aristotle, Physics (all books); local file
  14. Aristotle, Physics (all books) - see Book IV, Parts 10 - 14 (on time); local file
  15. St. Augustine's Confessions, Book XI - On Time
  16. Aristotle, Physics, Book IV (Part 1, (1) - a body has three dimensions); local file.
  17. Aristotle, Physics, Book VII (on motion); local file.
  18. Nicholas Copernicus, De Revolutionibus (On the Revolutions); local file.
  19. Galileo Galilei, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems; local file.
  20. Euclid's Elements
  21. Euclid's Elements - Table of Contents
  22. Euclid's Elements, Book I (Postulates); local file.
  23. Non-Euclidean Geometries
  24. Newton's Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy
  25. Newton's Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy - Definitions (absolute space and time); local file
  26. Newton's Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy - Axioms, or Laws of Motion; local file.
  27. Newton - Rules of Reasoning in Philosophy; local file.
  28. Newton's Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy - The Principles; local file
  29. Newton's bucket; local file.
  30. The Leibniz-Clarke Correspondence: Readings; local file.
  31. Leibniz-Clarke Correspondence (by S. Uchii)
  32. The Leibniz-Clarke Correspondence 1 (by S. Uchii)
  33. The Leibniz-Clarke Correspondence 2 (by S. Uchii)
  34. Newton's De Gravitatione
  35. Leibniz's Theory of Space in the Correspondence with Clarke and the Existence of Vacuums; local file.
  36. Luminiferous aether; local file.
  37. Albert Einstein's 1905 paper "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies"
  38. A. Einstein, Does the Inertia of a Body Depend upon its Energy-Content?
  39. Albert Einstein, Relativity: The Special and General Theory
  40. Hermann Minkowski, Space and Time (Original German publication - "Raum und Zeit"); local file
  41. Hermann Minkowski, Space and Time. In: The principle of relativity; original papers by A. Einstein and H. Minkowski.
  42. Crisis, What crisis? Physics at the end of the Nineteenth Century; local file.
  43. On Einstein's 1905 Paper on Special Relativity; local file.
  44. What is the experimental basis of Special Relativity?; local file.
  45. The Muon Experiment
  46. Why we believe in Special Relativity: Experimental Support for Einstein’s Theory; local file.
  47. General relativity - brief history; local file.
  48. Olbers' Paradox
  49. The Expanding Universe
  50. The Big Bang
  51. Big Bang - Wikipedia
  52. Foundations of Big Bang Cosmology - NASA
  53. Economist, 100 years of Einstein - Miraculous visions; local file.
  54. Space and Time: Inertial Frames
  55. Conventionality of Simultaneity
  56. Being and Becoming in Modern Physics
  57. Robin Le Poidevin, The Experience and Perception of Time
  58. PhilSci Archive - Subject: Relativity Theory
  59. Henri Bergson, Time and Free Will: An essay on the Immediate Data of Consciousness
  60. Henri Poincaré, Science and Hypothesis
  61. Henri Poincaré : Editions électroniques


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