Space and Time: Aristotle to Einstein

3 credits

This is a historical survey of metaphysical and epistemological problems of space and time. The main metaphysical question we will examine is: what kind of things are space and time, and how much intrinsic structure do they have? Are theysui generisentities existing alongside material bodies but distinct from them? Are they completely reducible to direct relations between bodies? A third thing? On the epistemological side, we will examine answers to the question, how do we come to know about space, time, and their content? Authors include: Aristotle, Descartes, Newton, Kant, and Einstein.