Tuesday 1/19

Thursday 1/21

Course Introduction: Logical Positivism and the Philosophy of Science.
The role of Science in Human life.

Science and Mathematics. Thales, Pythagoras, and the discovery of form. "All is number." Diggins Chapters 8-9, 11-12

Tuesday 1/26

Thursday 1/28

The Golden Mean. Diggins Ch. 15

The construction of the world out of numbers. Plato's Timaeus.

Diggins Ch. 13

The discovery of the Irrationals. Continuity in Ancient Mathematics, Diggins Ch. 14. Ch 16. OR Dantzig, “The Unuterrable.”

Tuesday 2/2

Thursday 2/4

Infinity in Ancient and Modern Science. "Aristotle on Zeno's paradoxes" OR Dantzig, “This Flowing World,” pp. 125-134.
The paradoxes of Infinity. Cantor's redefinition of Infinity and the concept of number. Dantzig, “The Anatomy of the Infinite,”

Cantor's redefinition of Infinity and the concept of number.

The infinitesimal Calculus.
Dantzig, “This Flowing World,” pp. 134-143.

Tuesday 2/9

Thursday 2/11

Assignment 1 Due

Ancient Astronomy and the Phenomena to be dealt with. Eratosthenes measures the Globe, Diggins, Ch 17.

Ptolemaic Astronomy. History of Physics Lectures, Sections 3, 4, 5, 8 required, especially 3*.

Copernican Astronomy. Copernicus's Commentariolus.

Tuesday 2/16

Thursday 2/18

Galileo and the Scientific Revolution. Galileo "Two Kinds of Properties",
"The View of Nature of the Scientific Revolution

The Principle of Relativity.

Galileo’s Principle of Relativity
Newton's laws of Motion. Absolute Space and Time. Selections from Newton’s "Scholium on Absolute Space" .

Tuesday 2/23

Thursday 2/25

Paradigms and Normal Science
Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Ch. 1. Postscript pp. 174-197.
Kuhn Ch. 4,

Introduction to Logical Positivism. "Logical Empiricism",
Logical Postivism Lesson

Tuesday 3/2

Thursday 3/4

Spring Break

Spring Break

Tuesday 3/9

Thursday 3/11

Theories and World Views. Kuhn Ch.Kuhn Ch. 5,6, 8, 9, 10, and 13

EXAM 1 DUE

Objectivity in Science

Richard Muller “Climate Change”

Tuesday 3/16

Thursday 3/18

Contemporary Realims:

Putnam’s Twin Earth and Brains in a Vat.

Special Relativity, Albert Einstein “Relativity”

Part I, Sections 1-10.
Special Relativity. “Relativity Tutorial”

Space Time diagram tutorial

Tuesday 3/23

Thursday 3/25

Quantum Mechanics.
"Quantum Behavior"

Realism and Quantum Mechanics. Bell’s Theorem. David Harrison "Bells Theorem"
or Gary Felder Spooky Action at a Distance

Tuesday 3/30

Thursday 4/1

Assignment 2 Due

General Relativity, Spacetime Wrinkles

String Theory . Brian Greene, “A Theory of Everything”

Easter Break

Tuesday 4/6

Thursday 4/8

Darwin’s Theory of Evolution.

Dennett, Darwin’s Dangerous Idea,
Ch 1-2

Darwin’s Theory of Evolution.

“Explaining the very Improbable”

“Accumulating Small Change”

Tuesday 4/13

Thursday 4/15

Evolution as Algorithm.

Dennett Ch 3 and Ch 5.

(Skip 4)

The Origin of the Universe. Dennett Ch. 7

The Anthropic Principle. William Lane Craig “The Teleological Argument And The Anthropic Principle

Tuesday 4/20

Thursday 4/22

Assignment 3 Due.
The Evolution of Mind
Dennett Ch. 14, 18

Functionalism and consciousness. The Chinese Room: Searle: “Minds, Brains, and Programs” OR “The Chinese Room Homepage”
Gödel’s Theorem and the Mind.

Dennett Ch. 15

Tuesday 4/27

Thursday 4/29

The Game of Life and The Nature of Science.
Assignment 4 Due

Science, Time, and Human Consciousness. Hoeg, Borderliners, pp. 1-158

Tuesday 5/4

Thursday 5/6

Technology, Alienation, and Civilization. Hoeg, pp. 158-end.

No Class