I'm Insane
From my Senior Seminar - Philosophy of Space and Time:
More detailed course description: Our course is about space. What sort of space? Not empty space. If you have a cubic box that is one foot on each edge and you fill it with marbles, then how much space is there left in the box? There are two answers. (1) A cubic foot. (2) It depends on how big the marbles are. Our course is about space in the sense of (1). And what about time? We don't mean free time. We mean the stuff that clocks measure. In this particular sense of space and time, this is a course in metaphysics and the philosophy of science that focuses on issues involving space and time.
Here are four examples of those issues:
Time has an arrow. We see this arrow when events "unfold" in a one-way direction. For example unbroken eggs turn into omelets, but omelets never turn into unbroken eggs. A rock leaves your hand and falls into a pond causing expanding waves. However, contracting waves on the pond never reach a point where they eject a rock into your hand leaving a smooth pond surface. What would human experience be like if time's arrow reversed direction in some far off corner of the universe? Would the people there walk backwards up steps while remembering the future?
Without minds in the world, nothing in the world would be surprising or beautiful or interesting. Can we add that nothing would be in time?
If all the matter and energy were to be removed from all of space, would empty space still be left, or instead would even empty space be gone?
Most philosophers of science claim to know there are more points of space on the line between you and the North Pole than there are rational numbers (fractions that are either negative or positive), yet there are infinitely many rational numbers. How do they know this if they haven't themselves counted the points?
These and our other issues will be placed in historical context, but they won't be covered in chronological order. Still, the course's historical range is broad. For example, we will examine the views of the ancient Greek atomists who invented the concept of space; and we will investigate the oldest metaphysical problem in European philosophy, the problem of change. We will also consider the impact of 21st century theories of quantum gravity on our civilization's understanding of space and time. The relevant scientific theories, such as Einstein's theories of relativity, will be introduced as needed, but only informally.
Regarding the philosophical issue of travel through space, the most important point to remember is that wherever you go, there you are. Your luggage is another story.
This is the kind of stuff I study ALL THE TIME. No wonder I'm such a weirdo. (I love it!)
This is also posted at DW, which you can find here. Comment wherever you want!
More detailed course description: Our course is about space. What sort of space? Not empty space. If you have a cubic box that is one foot on each edge and you fill it with marbles, then how much space is there left in the box? There are two answers. (1) A cubic foot. (2) It depends on how big the marbles are. Our course is about space in the sense of (1). And what about time? We don't mean free time. We mean the stuff that clocks measure. In this particular sense of space and time, this is a course in metaphysics and the philosophy of science that focuses on issues involving space and time.
Here are four examples of those issues:
Time has an arrow. We see this arrow when events "unfold" in a one-way direction. For example unbroken eggs turn into omelets, but omelets never turn into unbroken eggs. A rock leaves your hand and falls into a pond causing expanding waves. However, contracting waves on the pond never reach a point where they eject a rock into your hand leaving a smooth pond surface. What would human experience be like if time's arrow reversed direction in some far off corner of the universe? Would the people there walk backwards up steps while remembering the future?
Without minds in the world, nothing in the world would be surprising or beautiful or interesting. Can we add that nothing would be in time?
If all the matter and energy were to be removed from all of space, would empty space still be left, or instead would even empty space be gone?
Most philosophers of science claim to know there are more points of space on the line between you and the North Pole than there are rational numbers (fractions that are either negative or positive), yet there are infinitely many rational numbers. How do they know this if they haven't themselves counted the points?
These and our other issues will be placed in historical context, but they won't be covered in chronological order. Still, the course's historical range is broad. For example, we will examine the views of the ancient Greek atomists who invented the concept of space; and we will investigate the oldest metaphysical problem in European philosophy, the problem of change. We will also consider the impact of 21st century theories of quantum gravity on our civilization's understanding of space and time. The relevant scientific theories, such as Einstein's theories of relativity, will be introduced as needed, but only informally.
Regarding the philosophical issue of travel through space, the most important point to remember is that wherever you go, there you are. Your luggage is another story.
This is the kind of stuff I study ALL THE TIME. No wonder I'm such a weirdo. (I love it!)
This is also posted at DW, which you can find here. Comment wherever you want!