PHIL1914: Space and Time: from Aristotle to Einstein

Space and time belong to those concepts that we all intuitively use to make sense of the world around us. They are also crucial in all of modern science. But modern physics has brought along radical revisions in our view on these concepts. This course will introduce you to these revisions but also raise questions that still remain unestablished. This course will take you through a history of ideas about the nature of space and time ranging from Aristotle and Euclid in the 3rd century BC to Einstein's theory of general relativity, and the Big Bang model and black holes of modern cosmology. Along the way, we will discuss specific questions like: what is the geometry of physical space? Or is the choice of geometry a mere convention? Is space merely a relational notion? Or should we conceive of it as some kind of entity in its own right: as the stage on which the evolution of the universe takes place? How does Einstein's relativity theory change the verdict on these questions? Similar questions will be raised about time. In addition, we will discuss questions like: Is time travel physically possible? Does time have a direction? Do the past, present and future have a different status? And if not, how do we distinguish the past from the future?

View on University Catalog