This page contains syllabi, lecture notes, homework assignments, study questions, and some reading materials for past, present, and future classes I am teaching.

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15 Introduction to Philosophy: Theory of Knowledge, Spring 2009 (Link is active)

This course is an introductory survey of the major issues in epistemology, the theory of knowledge. It is topic-oriented rather than history-oriented. This emphasis means we will often consider problems independently of their historical context. Hopefully, what is lost by way of historical grounding will be balanced by a gain in interest in the issues themselves. In this class, we will address what are arguably the really deep problems of epistemology: How do humans come to know? What is knowledge, anyway? How can we ever be sure to know anything? For instance, how can be be sure that we are not brains in vats, or that we don't live in the Matrix? What could possibly justify our confidence in what we take ourselves to know? What are the rules for making inferences that generate new knowledge? How do humans learn? Can machines learn, too? What do cognitive science and neuroscience teach us about human knowledge? And finally, does gender influence our conceptions of knowledge, and if so, how?

246 Philosophical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics, Spring 2009 (Link is active)

After having equipped ourselves with the necessary mathematical tools, we will plunge into a careful study of the venerable mystery of quantum nonlocality. In exactly what sense is nonlocality enshrined in the theorems by Bell and by Kochen and Specker? Any solution of the measurement problem in quantum mechanics (another venerable mystery)---indeed any future physical theory---must acknowledge this nonlocality. Nonlocality is disconcerting not only because it contravenes our deeply engrained intuitions, but also because it stands in a stark tension to relativity. But both quantum mechanics (and with it, nonlocality) and special relativity have given us the most accurate empirical predictions we have ever had from physical theories. This seminar will focus its attention on this tension and track down how it plays out in all the most important interpretations of quantum mechanics available today: hidden variables/Bohmian mechanics, collapse theories/GRW, and many-worlds interpretations and recent developments of Everett's original proposal.

None at the moment.

• 12 Logic and Decision Making (Fall 2007)
• 14 Introduction to Philosophy: Metaphysics (Winter 2009)
• 15 Theory of Knowledge (Spring 2007)
• 87 Freshman Seminar: Paradoxes (Fall 2007)
• 87 Freshman Seminar: Time Travel and Its Paradoxes (Winter 2009)
• 145 Philosophy of Science (Winter 2007, Spring 2008)
• 146 Philosophy of Physics: Space and Time (Fall 2007)
• 146 Philosophy of Physics: Quantum Mechanics (Winter 2009)

• 285 Philosophy of Space, Time, and Spacetime (Spring 2007)
• 285 Heat, Time and Roulette Wheels (Spring 2008)

Introduction to the Philosophy of Physics (upper-division), Summer Semester 2006

This class introduced and discussed the most important contemporary debates in the philosophy of physics. The first part treated the philosophical foundations and consequences of relativity theory, both special and general. In particular, we have covered some philosophy of space and time, the geometry of our universe and the interpretation of general relativity. The second part turned to foundational issues in statistical physics and thermodynamics, particularly the issue of finding a direction of time based on statistical physics. The third and longest part addressed the foundations of quantum mechanics. Most importantly, we looked at the measurement problem and the interpretation of quantum mechanics, as well as at the non-locality of quantum-mechanical systems, the EPR-experiment and Bell`s inequality. The fourth and last part raised what is arguably the most pressing philosophical issue in cosmology: the anthropic principle and its role, its justification, and its consequences.

Einstein 1905 (upper-division), Summer Semester 2005

UNESCO declared 2005 as the "World Year of Physics". The reason for the particular choice of 2005 can be found in Albert Einstein`s "annus mirabilis" of 1905. In 1905, Einstein published four ground-breaking scientific articles within less than a year. He later received the Nobel prize for one of these works, although there can be little doubt that his scientific output for the year 1905 alone should have earned him three Nobel prizes! The class focused on reading these original articles as well as some secondary literature chosen such that the student was able to understand the main innovations of the original works. The last three meetings of the class studied the history of Einstein`s transition from special to general relativity.

Paradoxes (upper-division), Winter Semester 2004/05

In philosophy, a paradox is characterised as an argument which deduces from seemingly acceptable premises by seemingly accceptable rules of inference a seemingly inacceptable conclusion. The resolution of a paradox can thus proceed in three different ways: either we reject at least one of the premises or at least one of the rules of inference, or we accept the conclusion. By exposing inconsistencies in the foundations of a science and by thus explicating the hitherto tacitly held prejudices, paradoxes have often exerted a stimulating influence on the development of foundational issues in many sciences. It was the goal of this class to gain an insight into the mechanisms of philosophical argumentation and the methods of mathematical and scientific reasoning by scrutinising a vast array of paradoxes. These paradoxes included paradoxes of vagueness (sorites), of infinity and countability, of set theory, of statistics and probability, of space and time, of philosophy of language, and of physics and cosmology. P.S. This sentence is false.

Philosophy of Time and Spacetime (upper-division), Summer Semester 2004

What is time? What is space? This course treated these questions and studied some of the answers given in contemporary philosophy. In particular, it emphasised results from the most important physical theories of the (early) twentieth century, i.e. relativity theory and quantum mechanics, and how they constrain the range of possible notions of space and time.

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