PHIL 341 Philosophy of Space and Time

The course will cover such topics as whether space and time exist, how we know what the geometry of space and time is, whether any sense can be made of the claim that time has a direction, and the "paradoxes" of time travel. We will examine these questions in the context of both pre-relativistic and relativistic theories. The readings will range from historical figures such as Newton, Leibniz and Mach to contemporary work by both philosophers and physicists including Hawking, Feynman, Thorne and Sklar. This course does not require previous exposure to Special or General Relativity and will not require as a prerequisite technical skills that go beyond high school mathematics and physics, but students are expected to be comfortable with algebraic and geometric reasoning.