Graduate Seminar: Philosophy of Physics

3 Credits.

This seminar examines how self-reference—the fact that we represent the universe from within it—transforms foundational questions in philosophy of physics. Organized around draft chapters of a book in progress, the course explores what happens when Laplacean determinism confronts Gödelian limits: How does our embeddedness in the physical world reshape our understanding of prediction, time, determinism, and totality?Topics include the paradox of predictability, the arrow(s) of time, Newcomb's problem, quantum mechanics, and the concept of the universe as absolute totality. Readings draw from physics, logic, and formal epistemology. The seminar is discussion-based. Students will lead presentations on assigned readings and draft chapters. There are no pre-requisites, but students must be comfortable with formalism and willing to engage technical material in physics and logic.