THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPACE AND TIME

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1 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPACE AND TIME Philosophy 462A Term 1, 2009/10 Instructor: Steven Savitt Office: Buchanan E360 Telephone: Web site: Course Requirements: Classes will be conducted as a mixture of lecture and discussion. There will be periodic small specific written assignments (which count for 30% of the final mark), a mid-term (30%), and a final term paper or project, which may be done in conjunction with a class presentation. (40%). Each student will have the option of replacing the term paper/project with a final examination, but this arrangement must be made with the instructor before the mid-term examination. We will use the following texts, in addition to a packet of readings (CP) that will be distributed: The End of Time by Julain Barbour (Oxford University Press, 2000) [EoT], General Relativity from A to B by Robert Geroch (University of Chicago Press, 1978) [GRAB] In addition to the assignments listed in the following syllabus, there are a number of articles and books listed as Further reading. These are not assigned readings. They are pointers to further literature, should you find a topic particularly interesting, and they are usually good first sources to check for ideas for your term paper, if you write one. I shall also add a short list of reference sources that that may prove useful: The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, edited by Edward Zalta ( The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ed. by Paul Edwards, One Hundred Years of Philosophy by John Passmore, The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, ed. by Robert Audi Philosophy Pages ( The Natural Philosophy of Time (2e) by G. J. Whitrow (Oxford University Press, 1980), Concepts of Space by Max Jammer, (2 e) (Harvard University Press, 1969), Space, Time, and Spacetime by Lawrence Sklar, Philosophical Problems of Space and Time by Adolf Grünbaum, (Reidel: Second, enlarged edition 1973), Problems of Space and Time, edited by J. J. C. Smart (Macmillan, 1964) (out of print), The Concepts of Space and Time edited by Milic Capek (Reidel Publishing Co., 1976) (out of print), The Philosophy of Time, edited by Richard M. Gale (Anchor Books, Doubleday: 1967) (out of print), The Arguments of Time, edited by Jeremy Butterfield (Oxford University Press, 1999). Introduction to the Philosophy of Space and Time by John D. Norton in Introduction to the Philosophy of Science, ed. M. Salmon et al. (Hackett, 1999). Available from Norton s web page. Page 1

2 ASSIGNMENTS 10 September Introductory Lecture 15 Sept. Aristotle on Time and Fate Required Reading. Time from Aristotle's Physics, book IV, chapters Aristotle's De Interpretatione, Chapter 9, Tr. by J. L. Ackrill (Oxford, 1963). In CP. Further Reading: Aristotle on the Reality of Time by Fred Miller in Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie 56 (1974): Aristotle on Time by G. E. L. Owen in Motion and Time, Space and Matter, edited by Peter Machamer and Robert Turnbull (Ohio State University Press, 1976). Aristotle on the Instant of Change by Norman Kretzmann in Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Volume 50 (1976): Time Exists But Hardly, or Obscurely (Physics IV, 10: 217b29-218a33), by Norman Kretzman in Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume I (1976): Stump and Kretzman on Time and Eternity in The Journal of Philosophy 82 (1985): Is Time Real? Chapter 1 of Time, Creation and the Continuum by Richard Sorabji (Gerald Duckworth & Co., Ltd., 1983) Aristotle on Time and A Time by M. J. White in Apeiron 22 (1989): Time for Aristotle: Physics IV by Ursula Coope (Oxford University Press, 2008). Ackrill's notes to Chapter 9 of De Int., pp of his translation. Necessity, Cause and Blame by R. Sorabji, (Cornell University Press, 1980): Chapters 5-8 [An extended discussion, plus bibliography]. Fatalism by A. J. Ayer in The Concept of a Person (London, 1963): Time and Determinism by A. N. Prior in his Past, Present, and Future (Oxford University Press, 1967). Fitzgerald, Paul, Is the Future Partly Unreal? in Review of Metaphysics (March, 1968). Fitzgerald, Paul, The truth about tomorrow's sea fight in The Journal of Philosophy (1969): Introduction to the Philosophy of Time and Space, Chapter II, sections 1, 2 (pages 11-30) by Bas van Fraassen. The Moment of Change: A Systematic History in the Philosophy of Space and Time by Niko Strobach (Kluwer Academic, 1998). Truth and Necessity in Temporal Perspective by Nicholas Rescher in Richard Gale s The Philosophy of Time. On the Logic of Chronological Propositions by Nicholas Rescher in Mind 75 (1966): Sept. A Modern Defense of Fatalism Required Reading: Fatalism by Richard Taylor in Philosophical Review 71 (1964). [This article is available from JSTOR and was reprinted in Smart s Problems of Space and Time.] Further Reading: Fate, Logic, and Time by Steven Cahn (Yale University Press, 1967). Review of FLT by Paul Fitzgerald in Philosophy of Science 38 (March, 1971): Fatalism by Robert Segal in Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, Vol. 62, No. 4 (October, 1981): Fatalism and Time by Mark Bernstein in Dialogue, 28 (1989): Page 2

3 22 Sept. Che Sarà Sarà? (1) Required Reading: Logical Fatalisms, Chapter 1 of Puzzles for the Will by Jordan Howard Sobel (University of Toronto Press, 1998), pp Sept. Che Sarà Sarà? (2) Required Reading: Further discussion of Sobel 29 Sept. The Growing Block Universe (1) Required Reading. C, D. Broad s Scientific Thought, (1923): pp Available at: Further Reading: Tooley, Michael. Time, Tense, and Causation (Oxford University Press, 1997). John Earman. Reassessing the Prospects for a Growing Block Model of the Universe in International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 22 (July, 2008): October The Growing Block Universe (2) Required Reading. C, D. Broad s Scientific Thought, (1923): pp Available at: 6 October Time and Change Cannot Exist. Required Reading: The Unreality of Time by J. M. E. McTaggart from The Nature of Existence (Cambridge University Press, 1927), chapter 33. This book is available at: Further reading: This argument first appeared as The Unreality of Time by J. M. E. McTaggart in Mind, New Series, No. 68 (October, 1908). There is a comprehensive but dated bibliography on static versus dynamic time at the end of Gale's collection, The Philosophy of Time. More recent papers and an updated bibliography may be found in The New Theory of Time, edited and with introductions by L. Nathan Oaklander and Quentin Smith (Yale University Press, 1994). Some other papers. A (Dis)Solution of McTaggart's Paradox by David Zeilicovici in Ratio 28 (1986): Temporal Becoming Minus the Moving-Now by David Zeilicovici in Noûs 23 (1989): Zeilicovici on Temporal Becoming by Nathan Oaklander in Philosophia 21 (1992): The Transient Now by Abner Shimony in his Search for a Naturalistic World View, Volume II: Natural Science and Metaphysics (Cambridge University Press, 1993). A Short Defense of Transience by George Schlesinger in Philosophical Quarterly 43 (1993): A Modal analysis. Worlds Enough for Time by John Bigelow in Noûs 25 (1991): Reply by Nathan Oaklander in Analysis (December, 1994). Page 3

4 8 Oct. A Defense of Becoming (I) Required Reading: Ostensible Temporality by C. D. Broad from An Examination of McTaggart's Philosophy, Volume II, part 1, (1938): Further reading: Broad's Views about Time by W. C. K. Mundle in The Philosophy of C. D. Broad, Paul A. Schilpp, ed. (Tudor Pub. Co., 1959), pp Chapter 5, Multiple Drafts Versus the Cartesian Theater, and Chapter 6, Time and Experience, in Daniel C. Dennett's Consciousness Explained (Little, Brown and Company, 1991) An older exchange on the specious present : Mabbott, J. D. Our Direct Experience of Time, Mind 60 (1951): Mundle, C. W. K. How Specious is the 'Specious Present'? Mind 63 (1954): Plumer, G. The Myth of the Specious Present, Mind 94 (1985): New material. Wooden Iron? Husserlian Phenomenology Meets Cognitive Science by Timothy van Gelder in Electronic Journal of Analytic Philosophy (1996). The Specious Present: A Neurophenomenology of Time Consciousness by Francisco Varela in Naturalizing Phenomenology, ed. by Petitot, J., Francisco Vareal, et al., (Stanford University Press, 1999). 13 Oct. A Defense of Becoming (II) Required Reading: Ostensible Temporality, pp Oct. A Defense of Becoming (III) Required Reading: Ostensible Temporality, pp Oct. The Block Universe Defended Required Reading: The Myth of Passage by Donald C. Williams. Journal of Philosophy, 48 (1951): Further Reading: On the Experience of Time by Bertrand Russell. The Monist, 24 (1915): The Myth of Frozen Passage: the Status of Becoming in the Physical World by Milic Capek in Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, Volume II (Humanities Press, 1965) [plus a response from Williams, Physics and Flux: Comments on Professor Capek's Essay. ] Temporal Relations and Temporal Becoming by L. Nathan Oaklander (University Press of America, 1984) [a defense of Russell's view]. Indexicals. The Problem of the Essential Indexical by John Perry. Noûs 13: Elusive Thoughts: the Limited Accessibility of Indexically Expressed Beliefs by Peter E. Pruim in Philosophical Studies 83 (1996): Oct. Mid-Term Examination 27 Oct. Absolute Space and Time Required Reading: Newton s Scholium on Time, Space, Place and Motion from Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica ( Page 4

5 Further Reading: Newton s Views on Space, Time, and Motion by Robert Rynasiewicz ( Understanding Spacee-Time: The Philosophical Development of Physics from Newton to Einstein by Robert DiSalle (Cambridge University Press, 2008). Newton's Fluxions and Equably Flowing Time by Richard Arthur in Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 26 (1995): 323-?. The Newton Project: Newton s Philosophical Analysis of Space and Time by Robert DiSalle in The Cambridge Companion to Newton, ed. by I Bernard Cohen and George E. Smith (Cambridge University Press, 2002): Newton s Metaphysics by Howard Stein in The Cambridge Companion to Newton, ed. by I Bernard Cohen and George E. Smith (Cambridge University Press, 2002): Oct. Relational Space and Time (1) Required Reading: The Leibniz-Clarke Papers, pp This document may be found at 3 November Relational Space and Time (2) Required Reading: The Leibniz-Clarke Papers, pp Nov. Relational Space and Time (3) Required Reading: The Leibniz-Clarke Papers, pp. 27-end. Further Reading: Hooker, C. A., The Relational Doctrines of Space and Time in British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 22 (1971): Relational Theories of Euclidean Space and Minkowski Spacetime by Brent Mundy in Philosophy of Science 50 (1983): Arthur, Richard, Leibniz and Time in The Natural Philosophy of Leibniz. K. Okruhlik and J. Brown (Eds.): Dordrecht, D. Reidel (1985). II.3 of An Introduction to the Philosophy of Time and Space by Bas van Fraassen (Columbia U. Press, 1985). Also van Fraassen's Time in Physical and Narrative Structure in Chronotypes: in The Construction of Time, edited by J. Bender and D. E. Wellbery (Stanford University Press, 1991): How Euclidean Geometry has Misled Metaphysics by Graham Nerlich in The Journal of Philosophy, 88 (April, 1991): Newton and the Leibniz-Clarke Correspondence by Domenico Bertolini Meli in The Cambridge Companion to Newton, ed. by I Bernard Cohen and George E. Smith (Cambridge University Press, 2002): Newton versus Leibniz: from Geometry to Metaphysics by A. Rupert Hall in The Cambridge Companion to Newton, ed. by I Bernard Cohen and George E. Smith (Cambridge University Press, 2002): Nov. Spacetime Theories: The General Framework Required Reading: Chapter 1 in General Relativity from A to B (GRAB). 12 Nov. The Aristotelian View: Absolute Space and Time Required Reading: Chapter 2 in General Relativity from A to B (GRAB). Page 5

6 17 Nov. The Galilean View: Absolute Time without Absolute Position Required Reading: Chapters 3 and 4 in General Relativity from A to B (GRAB). 19 Nov. Time is in the instant. Required Reading: The End of Time, chapters 1 and Nov. Configuration Space Required Reading: The End of Time, chapter 3. What is a vector (or linear) space? See 2 Linear Spaces of Chapter XVI, Linear Algebra, in Mathematics: its Content, Methods, and Meaning, Volume 3, ed. by A. D. Aleksandrov et al. (MIT Press, 1969), an invaluable set of books, or of Rig Hughes The Structure and Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics, or pages in Conceptual Foundations of Quantum Mechanics by Abner Shimony in The New Physics, edited by Paul Davies (Cambridge University Press, 1989), which will likely be part of an assigned reading in Phil. 462B. The first sections of the Wikipedia article vector space should serve. 26 Nov. Newton Revisited Required Reading. The End of Time, chapters 4 and 5. 1 December Leibniz s Vindicated? Required Reading. The End of Time, chapters 6 and 7. 3 Dec. Review Page 6

appointment professor of logic and philosophy of science, university of california, irvine, 2017-

appointment professor of logic and philosophy of science, university of california, irvine, 2017- jb manchak logic and philosophy of science university of california, irvine education ph.d. philosophy, university of california, irvine, 2009 b.s. physics, brigham young university, 2004 b.a. philosophy,