20706039 - SCIENCE AND METAPHYSICS

The course of Science and Metaphysics is part of the program in Philosophy and it is included among the complementary training activities.The aim of this course is to illustrate and discuss philosophical issues connected to science, and the contribution that scientific theories can make towards our understanding of the fundamental structure of reality. Students will acquire knowledge of specific research themes at the boundary between theoretical philosophy and the empirical sciences, as well as the ability to compare the methods, themes and results of philosophy and science, and put them together.
Students will be able to apply the knowledge acquired in the discussion and argument both from a theoretical and a scientific perspective. At the end of the course the student will acquire:
-) Ability to analyze and interpret philosophical and scientific texts;
-) Properties of language and argumentation;
-) Ability to contextualize the acquired knowledge in the philosophical and scientific debate.
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Programme

In general, the course will focus on the history and philosophy of space and time, giving particular emphasis to the relationship between physical and experiential time. Within this relationship, the nature of the present moment is particularly important: while physics can safely ignore such a moment, in our experience it separates an immutable past from a future that is not conceived deterministically or fatalistically but is rather regarded as open to our free decisions.

Core Documentation

B. Dainton Time and Space, second edition, McGill e Queens, 2010

Reference Bibliography

P. Mazur, Zeno's paradox, Penguin, 2007 M. Lockwood The labyrinth of time, OUP

Type of delivery of the course

Questions on topics presented in the class

Type of evaluation

Questions on various topics presented in class