Phil0161 Philosophy of Relativity Physics Schedule

Philosophy of Physics, Science, and Metaphysics at Brown University

Brown University Phil0161 Philosophy of Relativity Physics Schedule, Spring 2008

Links to Papers

Note for Brown students: Some of the links to the papers require that your IP address is seen as being from Brown. You either need to be on campus or use the VPN software that Brown provides. You never need to pay any money for access to articles. For non-Brown readers, for some papers, you will need access through a library that has a subscription to the relevant journal.

Everything listed here is subject to change based on class performance and scheduling contingencies.

Jan 24	Introduction, Classical debate over the nature of space and time, Substantivalism, Relationist Arguments
Jan 29	Newtonian Physics, Newton’s Bucket Argument, Relationist Responses to the Bucket Argument	Required: Dainton, Ch. 10-11, Newton’s Scholium, The first 8 pages of Belot, "Geometry and Motion" Technical: Earman, Ch 1 (on reserve).
Jan 31	The Principle of Relativity, Topology, Manifolds	Required: Einstein Ch 1-6 Required: Notes Technical: Friedmann, Ch II; Focus on Ch II.3 as having the philosophically important bits. (on reserve)
Feb 5	Tangent Spaces, Covariance/Contravariance, Connections, Metric, Classical Mechanics in Galilean Spacetime	Required: Dainton, Ch. 12. Technical: Notes on vector spaces, and topology; Earman, Ch 4, 6 (on reserve for further investigation of the classical debate)
Feb 7	The Principle of Relativity; Covariance and Invariance; Symmetry Groups	Required: Notes
Feb 12	Classical Electromagnetism; The Electric and Magnetic Limits; Why it isn't Galilean Invariant	Required: Notes; Einstein, Ch 7 Read the first ten pages or so of John Norton's paper "Einstein's Investigations of Galilean Covariant Electrodynamics prior to 1905." We will concentrate on the chart that is on page 53 (9th page of pdf file) and its signficance, i.e. the fact that there are two Galilean covariant partial theories of electromagnetism.
Feb 14	The Principle of Special Relativity; Einstein's Original Paper on Special Relativity; Minkowski spacetime, Relativistic Kinematics	Required: Notes (Relativity Chapter); Einstein, Ch 8-14; “On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies” Homework due Friday Feb 15 at 5 PM. (Relationism/Absolutism)
Feb 19	Holiday
Feb 21	Review of Kinematics, Different kinds of Relativization, Relativistic Electromagnetism	Required: Dainton, Ch. 16; Notes Ch. 3.
Feb 26	Einstein's Derivation vs. Modern Derivation, The Law of Light, Magnet and Conductor Argument	Required: Brown, Ch. 3 Technical: Friedmann, Ch IV.5-6 (on reserve)
Feb 28	E=mc²	Required: Einstein, Ch 15-17; Lange, Ch. 8.4 Homework due (Cylindrical STR) Friday Mar 1 at 5 PM.
Mar 4	The General Principle of Relativity; The Principle of Equivalence (Elevator Argument)	Required: Einstein, Ch 18-21, Dainton, Ch. 18
Mar 6	Non-Euclidean Geometry (Rotating Ring Argument)	Required: Einstein, Ch 22-23
Mar 11	The General Theory of Relativity, The Principle of Equivalence Reappraised, Machianism Vindicated?	Technical: Friedmann, Ch V.1-6 (on reserve)
Mar 13	Does the Special Principle of Relativity hold in General Relativity? How does geometry explain motion?	Required: Brown, Ch. 8
Mar 18	Einstein’s Hole argument and The Modern Hole Argument	Required: Norton, The Hole Argument; Dainton Ch. 19. Homework due (The Principle of Relativity) Wednesday March 19 at 5 PM.
Mar 20	Absolutism vs. Relationalism Reappraised	Required: Maudlin, "Buckets of Water and Waves of Space" Technical: Earman, Ch 9 (on reserve).
Apr 1	E=mc² revisited.	Required: Flores, "The Equivalence of Mass and Energy"
Apr 3	Does General Relativity obey the Conservation of Energy?	Required: Hoefer, "Energy Conservation in GTR"
Apr 8	Quantum Mechanics, Configuration Space, Collapse-mechanisms and Extra-variables
Apr 10	Class Canceled
Apr 15	Locality, Quantum Non-locality, Non-local Causation, Signalling	A. Einstein, B. Podolsky, and N. Rosen, Can Quantum-Mechanical Description of Physical Reality Be Considered Complete?; Bohr's Reply; Maudlin, "Non-local Correlations in QM"
Apr 17	Is Relativity compatible with Quantum Mechanics?	Homework due (The Hole Argument/Machianism) Monday Apr 14 at 5 PM.
Apr 22	Is Quantum Non-Locality non-local causation?	Maudlin, Ch 5
Apr 24	The Standard Cosmological Model, Singularities, Determinism, Black Holes, Cosmic Censorship Hypothesis, Closed-timelike Curves, Time Travel	Homework due (Non-Locality) Friday Apr 18 at 5 PM.
Apr 29	Last Class: Review	Friedman, "Introduction" (Optional: Abramovicz, "Black Holes and the Centrifugal Force Paradox") Homework due (Cosmology) Monday May 12 at 5 PM.
Thursday, May 15, 9AM	Final Exam at Wilson 303