History Philosophy Of Space Time

Space and time are probably intuitive concepts to many of us. Clocks tick down, trees grow taller. Things were here, now they are there. We have memories of the past, of things back then, but not of things in the future. But despite their familiarity, space and time do not seem to be the same sort of stuff as tables or chairs. So what are they, really? Are they 'real'? Is there a sense in which space and time are substantial `stuff' at all? If they are, are they the same kind of stuff?

Can we travel through time, like traveling through space? Could we live in a world where space and time are not `really' there, where they are merely emergent? Can influences travel across arbitrary large spatiotemporal regions instantaneously?

Some of the greatest thinkers in history have considered these questions, from the Presocratics and Aristotle, to Newton, Leibniz, Kant, Poincare, and Einstein. These are also questions which continues to occupy many philosophers and physicists today. This course will introduce you to some of the ways one can conceptualize, and question, the nature of space and time. The first half of the course will take us through a brief tour of the history of philosophy of space and time, from the Presocratics to Einstein's theory of relativity. The second half will sample some contemporary topics in the philosophy of space and time.