Philosophy of Time
Spring 2008
Alexander R.
Pruss
Course website: http://AlexanderPruss.com/classes/time
Class Times: Monday and Thursday 3:30-4:50
E-mail: Alexander_Pruss@baylor.edu
Office
hours:Monday and Thursday,
3:30-3:50 (or 3:35-3:55)
Texts:
Expectations
from students: Students will do
the assigned reading before every lecture, attend class, participate in
discussion, and write the assigned papers. There are two 10-14 page philosophical papers required. The first is due February 29 and the second May 7. The two papers must be on topics that are sufficiently distinct. This judgment is left to your discretion.
Academic integrity: We have an omniscient Judge.
Course plan: Time permitting, we’ll explore different aspects of the strangeness of time. The pace at which we go will be determined by how class discussion goes. Readings will be put into the online syllabus on the course web page. If this course were taught without temporal limitations, it would cover the following topics:
Readings (not underlined readings are in box):
January 17: Zeno's paradoxes, Aristotle on Zeno's paradoxes, Thomson, Benacerraf
January 24: Mckie
January 25: Einstein, Relativity: The Special and the General Theory, up to the end of Chapter XIII
January 30: Finish Einstein book, but Appendix I is optional
February 4: Lewis on time travel
February 7: Class canceled because too many people are going to San Antonio
February 11: Canceled
February 14:
February 18: McTaggart
February 21: C. D. Broad and Quentin Smith
February 25: Quentin Smith, Beer
February 28: Quentin Smith, Kaplan
March 3: Zimmerman, perhaps more
March 6: Bergson, Creative Evolution (up to page 59), Williams
March 6: Bergson, Creative Evolution (up to page 59), Williams
March 17: Bigelow; Merricks (Chapter 6, on reserve in library)
March 20: Merricks (a different piece from the March 17 one); Pruss
March 27: Crisp; Rea
March 31: Sider; Rea
April 7: Lewis
April 10: Pruss
April 14: Gale
April 23: Boethius, Aquinas (STh I.14.13), Pike
April 28: Parfit, Reasons and Persons, Chapter 8
May 1: Lucretius and Epicurus, Nagel
May 5: Russell, Camus, Kierkegaard's Journals and Papers, Volume 1, s.v. "Death" and "Eternity, the Eternal" (library.nlx.com; from off-campus, use this link)
Notes: