Hans Halvorson Physics, Logic, Philosophy

Philosophy of Physics – Space and Time

Fall 2022

Instructor: Hans Halvorson (hhalvors@)

Course materials

Lecture notes and primary source handouts are available here:

→ Resources page

Assignments

  • Weekly study questions based on the readings; students should be prepared to defend their answers in class.
  • Two papers (approximately 8–10 pages each):
    • One due around midterm
    • One due at the end of the semester
    A list of suggested topics will be distributed, or you may propose your own (subject to approval).

Required Books

  1. H. G. Alexander (ed.), The Leibniz–Clarke Correspondence: With Extracts from Newton’s Principia and Optiks. Manchester University Press. ISBN 0719006694

  2. Andrew Janiak (ed.), Newton: Philosophical Writings. Cambridge University Press, 2014. ISBN 978110761593

  3. Daniel Garber and Roger Ariew (eds.), Leibniz: Philosophical Essays. Hackett Publishing Company, 1989. ISBN 0872200620

  4. Peter Pesic (ed.), Beyond Geometry: Classic Papers from Riemann to Einstein. Dover, 2006. ISBN 0486453502

Other readings (PDFs) are available via the Canvas Files section or the Modules section.

Schedule

(Revised frequently — please check for the most recent version)

Week 1 (9/6)

Introductory remarks; perennial philosophical issues about space and time

9/8 — Precursors to Newton; Descartes on space and motion

Read

  • Descartes, The Principles of Philosophy, Part II, §§1–44 (Canvas files/modules)
  • Huggett, “Motion and relativity before Newton,” pp. 1–19

Week 2 (9/13, 9/15)

Continuing Descartes No lecture on Thursday

Week 3 (9/20, 9/22)

Newton’s substantivalism

Read

  • Newton, De Gravitatione, in Newton: Philosophical Writings (NPW), pp. 26–58

From Principia (NPW):

  • Author’s Preface to the Reader, pp. 59–61
  • Definitions and Scholium, pp. 79–90
  • Axioms, Corollaries, and Scholium, pp. 90–106
  • Excerpts from Books I and II, pp. 106–109
  • General Scholium, pp. 109–114

Suggested

  • Cotes’s Preface to the Second Edition, NPW pp. 61–78
  • Howard Stein (1967), “Newtonian Space-Time,” Texas Quarterly 10: 174–200

Week 4 (9/27, 9/29)

Leibniz’s alternative to Newton

Primary readings

  • “On Body and Force”, “Against the Cartesians”, in Leibniz: Philosophical Essays (AG), pp. 250–256
  • Leibniz–Clarke Correspondence (H. G. Alexander, ed.) First skim Leibniz’s letters (you may skip Clarke’s replies), then focus on:
    • §§4–6 of the third paper (cf. §2 of Clarke’s fourth reply)
    • §§7–10 of the fourth paper (cf. §10 of Clarke’s fourth reply)
    • §§29, 39, 45, 47 (origin of the concept of space), 79, and 106 of the fifth paper

Optional

  • A Brief Demonstration of a Notable Error of Descartes and Others Concerning a Natural Law (Canvas PDF)
  • Daniel Garber, “Leibniz’s Transcendental Aesthetic”
  • Appendix D in Gordon Belot, Geometric Possibility

Week 5 (10/4, 10/6)

Berkeley on space and motion

Read

  • Berkeley, On Motion
  • Berkeley, The Principles of Human Knowledge, §§96–143

Week 6

Kant’s transcendental idealism about space

10/11 — Incongruent counterparts and absolute space

Read

  • Kant, Directions in Space, in Theoretical Philosophy 1755–1770 (CUP), pp. 365–372

Suggested

  • Graham Nerlich (1973), “Hands, knees, and absolute space,” Journal of Philosophy 70(12): 337–351
  • John Earman, “Kant, incongruent counterparts, and absolute space,” in World Enough and Space-Time (MIT Press, 1989)

10/13 — Incongruent counterparts and transcendental idealism

Read

  • Kant, Prolegomena, §13
  • Kant, Critique of Pure Reason, Transcendental Aesthetic B33–73 (Guyer translation, pp. 172–192)

Suggested

  • Norman Kemp Smith, A Commentary on Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, pp. 161–166
  • Hans Vaihinger, “Das Paradoxon der symmetrischen Gegenstände,” in Commentar zu Kants Kritik der reinen Vernunft, Vol. 2, pp. 518–532

Fall Break

Week 7 (10/25, 10/27)

Nineteenth-century advances in the theory of space

Read

  • Riemann, “On the hypotheses that lie at the foundation of geometry” (in Pesic)
  • Helmholtz, “On the factual foundations of geometry”

Suggested

Week 8 (11/1, 11/3)

De-interpretation and conventionalism

Read

  • Helmholtz, “The origin and meaning of geometrical axioms”
  • Poincaré, “Non-Euclidean geometries”
  • Poincaré, “On the foundations of geometry”

Week 9 (11/8, 11/10)

Relativity theory

Read

  • Einstein, “Geometry and experience”
  • Einstein, “Non-Euclidean geometry and physics”
  • Einstein, “Space-time”

Week 10 (11/15, 11/17)

Relativity theory

Read

  • Cassirer, Einstein’s Theory of Relativity (selections)
  • Schlick, “Critical or empiricist interpretation of modern physics?”
  • Schlick, Space and Time in Contemporary Physics (selections)

Week 11 (11/29, 12/1)

Relativity theory

  • Lorentz versus Minkowski
  • The passage of time

Week 12 (12/6, 12/8)

Relativity theory