Achtung! Das Lehrangebot ist noch nicht vollständig und wird bis Semesterbeginn laufend ergänzt.
180110 SE Space and Time (2025W)
Prüfungsimmanente Lehrveranstaltung
Labels
Hinweis der SPL Philosophie:Das Abgeben von ganz oder teilweise von einem KI-tool (z.B. ChatGPT) verfassten Texten als Leistungsnachweis (z.B. Seminararbeit) ist nur dann erlaubt, wenn dies von der Lehrveranstaltungsleitung ausdrücklich als mögliche Arbeitsweise genehmigt wurde. Auch hierbei müssen direkt oder indirekt zitierte Textstellen wie immer klar mit Quellenangabe ausgewiesen werden.Die Lehrveranstaltungsleitung kann zur Überprüfung der Autorenschaft einer abgegebenen schriftlichen Arbeit ein notenrelevantes Gespräch (Plausibilitätsprüfung) vorsehen, das erfolgreich zu absolvieren ist.
An/Abmeldung
Hinweis: Ihr Anmeldezeitpunkt innerhalb der Frist hat keine Auswirkungen auf die Platzvergabe (kein "first come, first served").
- Anmeldung von Mo 08.09.2025 00:00 bis So 14.09.2025 23:59
- Anmeldung von Mo 22.09.2025 00:00 bis Mi 24.09.2025 23:59
- Abmeldung bis Fr 31.10.2025 23:59
Details
max. 25 Teilnehmer*innen
Sprache: Englisch
Lehrende
Termine (iCal) - nächster Termin ist mit N markiert
- Freitag 17.10. 11:30 - 13:00 Seminarraum 1 Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 9 Hof 3
- Freitag 24.10. 11:30 - 13:00 Seminarraum 6 Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 9 Hof 5
- Freitag 31.10. 11:30 - 13:00 Seminarraum 6 Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 9 Hof 5
- Freitag 07.11. 11:30 - 13:00 Seminarraum 6 Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 9 Hof 5
- Freitag 14.11. 11:30 - 13:00 Seminarraum 6 Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 9 Hof 5
- Freitag 21.11. 11:30 - 13:00 Seminarraum 6 Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 9 Hof 5
- Freitag 28.11. 11:30 - 13:00 Hörsaal 3B NIG 3.Stock
- Freitag 05.12. 11:30 - 13:00 Seminarraum 6 Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 9 Hof 5
- Freitag 12.12. 11:30 - 13:00 Seminarraum 6 Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 9 Hof 5
- Freitag 19.12. 11:30 - 13:00 Seminarraum 6 Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 9 Hof 5
- Freitag 09.01. 11:30 - 13:00 Seminarraum 6 Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 9 Hof 5
- Freitag 16.01. 11:30 - 13:00 Seminarraum 6 Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 9 Hof 5
- Freitag 23.01. 11:30 - 13:00 Seminarraum 6 Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 9 Hof 5
- N Freitag 30.01. 11:30 - 13:00 Seminarraum 6 Hauptgebäude, Tiefparterre Stiege 9 Hof 5
Information
Ziele, Inhalte und Methode der Lehrveranstaltung
Art der Leistungskontrolle und erlaubte Hilfsmittel
-- Students are expected to attend and participate in seminars, a maximum of two unexcused absences are permitted.
-- Students are also required to answer 4 reading questions (circa 200 to 300 words) circulated throughout the semester.
-- Students will also submit a final term paper (2.000 to 3.500 words, including footnotes, references etc.).
-- Students are also required to answer 4 reading questions (circa 200 to 300 words) circulated throughout the semester.
-- Students will also submit a final term paper (2.000 to 3.500 words, including footnotes, references etc.).
Mindestanforderungen und Beurteilungsmaßstab
I. Grading
The reading questions account for 40% of the course grade (each counts for 10%).
The term paper accounts for the remaining 60% of the grade.II. Criteria
The reading questions provide students with an opportunity to demonstrate their understanding of the assigned readings and to engage with the material contained in these readings. These will not directly ask students to describe the content in the relevant text per se, but rather to challenge or assess the author’s arguments. Answers will be relatively brief (a few hundred words at most): they will be assessed for philosophical insight and understanding of the material.Term papers are assessed as pieces of academic philosophy. Clarity of exposition, originality of thought, strength of argument, and engagement with relevant literature are among the good-making features of a strong term paper. By contrast, poorly written and poorly argued papers will score less well.III. Passing Grade
In order to get a passing grade, the term paper must receive a passing grade, and the average of the reading questions must be a passing grade also.IV. Required Background Knowledge
While there are no formal prerequisites, previous experience with metaphysics and philosophy of science will be helpful.
The reading questions account for 40% of the course grade (each counts for 10%).
The term paper accounts for the remaining 60% of the grade.II. Criteria
The reading questions provide students with an opportunity to demonstrate their understanding of the assigned readings and to engage with the material contained in these readings. These will not directly ask students to describe the content in the relevant text per se, but rather to challenge or assess the author’s arguments. Answers will be relatively brief (a few hundred words at most): they will be assessed for philosophical insight and understanding of the material.Term papers are assessed as pieces of academic philosophy. Clarity of exposition, originality of thought, strength of argument, and engagement with relevant literature are among the good-making features of a strong term paper. By contrast, poorly written and poorly argued papers will score less well.III. Passing Grade
In order to get a passing grade, the term paper must receive a passing grade, and the average of the reading questions must be a passing grade also.IV. Required Background Knowledge
While there are no formal prerequisites, previous experience with metaphysics and philosophy of science will be helpful.
Prüfungsstoff
I.
The reading questions will be pertain directly to the assigned texts.II.
The topic of the term paper should be related to the issues discussed in class. If in doubt, students should inquire with the instructor whether a particular topic is suitable.
The reading questions will be pertain directly to the assigned texts.II.
The topic of the term paper should be related to the issues discussed in class. If in doubt, students should inquire with the instructor whether a particular topic is suitable.
Literatur
* Shamik Dasgupta, ‘Substantivalism vs. Relationalism About Space in Classical Physics’, Philosophy Compass, 10/9, (2015), 601–624.
* Heather Dyke, Time, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (Cambridge Elements in Metaphysics Series), 2021.
* Tim Maudlin, ‘Relativity and Space-Time Structure’ in Quantum non-locality and Relativity: The Metaphysical Intimations of Modern Physics, Oxford: Blackwell, 2011.
* Jonathan Schaffer, ‘Spacetime the one substance’, Philosophical Studies, 145 (2009), pp.131–148.
* Heather Dyke, Time, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (Cambridge Elements in Metaphysics Series), 2021.
* Tim Maudlin, ‘Relativity and Space-Time Structure’ in Quantum non-locality and Relativity: The Metaphysical Intimations of Modern Physics, Oxford: Blackwell, 2011.
* Jonathan Schaffer, ‘Spacetime the one substance’, Philosophical Studies, 145 (2009), pp.131–148.
Zuordnung im Vorlesungsverzeichnis
Letzte Änderung: Fr 26.09.2025 17:46
This course aims to introduce students to issues at the intersection of metaphysics and philosophy of science pertaining to space and time.II. Contents
The first part of the course will focus on questions about space. We’ll ask in particular whether space is distinct from bodies (ostensibly the occupants of space). This will involve considering the merits of a number of rival views: substantivalism (the view that space is distinct from such bodies); relationalism (the view that space is an abstraction from the relations among bodies); supersubstantivalism (the view that bodies are just reifications of regions of space).We’ll then turn to consider time. We’ll contrast so-called A-theory and B-theory: rival views of time that differ in their view of tense. A-theorists think (roughly) that it is essential to capturing the temporal aspects of our world that events can be future, present, or past. By contrast, B-theorists think the temporal aspects of our world can be exhaustively captured in terms of events being before/after other events. Being present on this view becomes a relational designation. Having introduced these issues, we’ll go on to consider the merits of these views. For instance, A-theory is often motivated by the intuition that time passes. But if time passes, surely it passes at some rate. One concern though is that there is something absurd about a rate of temporal passage: suppose we want to say that time passes at a rate of one second per second. By contrast, B-theory seems to have difficulties explaining our experience of time and account for change. We’ll consider these and other objections.For the most part, we’ll focus on the lessons we can draw from classical physics, although towards the end of the course, we will briefly touch on the upshots of relativity theory for philosophical views of space and time, focusing particularly on the significance of special relativity. In this context, space and time are no longer treated as separate topics and philosophers, following physicists, increasingly study spacetime. As throughout the course, however, we will avoid relying on the full mathematical formalism of contemporary physics and instead present the issues more informally using diagrams and thought experiments.III. Methods
Teaching will involve seminar discussion, reading, etc.