Formative Essay
Choose One of the following questions and write a 1,500 word essay in response, to be submitted via Moodle. Please be sure to consult the material posted on Moodle that gives advice on how to write philosophical essays, especially if you have not written a philosophical essay before.
- Presentism. Choose one response to the argument that special relativity is incompatible with presentism. Then, give an argument against that response, or else defend that response from an interesting objection.
- Readings. You should at least draw on the Curtis and Robson assigned reading. You may also wish to draw on one of the further readings as well, and in particular Hinchcliff (2000).
- Background. You should be sure to briefly explain the incompatibility argument as part of your essay, in addition to the response that you consider.
- Verificationism. Einstein writes the failed attempts to detect the luminiferous ether "suggest that the phenomena of electrodynamics as well as of mechanics possess no properties corresponding to the idea of absolute rest" (Einstein 1905). Evaluate Einstein's use of verificationism in this instance: either a) defend it from an interesting objection; or b) argue that Einstein's use of verificationism is unwarranted.
- Readings. Focus on the statement of verificationism in Lecture 4.2, but be sure to have a look at the first three paragraphs of Einstein (1905) above. Other commentary you may wish to consider: the passage on Ockam's razor in the optional reading by Reichenbach (cited in Lecture 4.2), and also at Brown's (1987) comments on the magnet and conductor in the optional readings. You may also find it helpful to browse this more detailed discussion of verificationism, or read a classic statement of the philosophical view in A.J. Ayer
- Background. Be sure to explain Einstein's magnet and conductor argument, and how it appears to make use of verificationism. Then present your argument.
Summative Essay 1
Choose One of the following questions and write a 1,500 word essay in response, to be submitted via Moodle.
- Time travel. Present and evaluate an argument that time travel is 'physically possible' in some interesting sense in the context of General Relativity.
- Readings. You should draw on the lecture notes and/or one of the optional readings like Maudlin (1990) or Arntzenius and Maudlin.
- Comment. Be sure to explain the concept of a closed timelike curve, as well as the Grandfather Paradox.
- Conventionalism about Geometry. Is it possible to know the geometry of spacetime? Present an argument for some answer to this question, and evaluate that argument.
- Readings. You should at least draw on the lecture notes and on the optional reading by Reichenbach.
- Background. As background, be sure to briefly explain the sense in which General Relativity makes predictions about spacetime geometry.
Summative Essay 2
Write a 1,500 word essay in response to the following question, to be submitted via Moodle.
Thought Experiments. Empiricism is the view that all knowledge comes from experience. Do thought experiments provide us with knowledge of the natural world in a way that transcends empiricism? Choose a thought experiment studied in this course. Then, evaluate this question in the particular case of that thought experiment.
- Helpful reading: Focus on lecture 10.2, "Thought Experiments". For further background reading, see the optional readings by Brown ("Why thought experiments transcend empiricism") and Norton ("Why thought experiments do not transcend empiricism").
- Example Thought Experiments from This Course: Einstein chasing the light beam (Lecture 1), the light clock (Lecture 2.1), The magnet and the conductor (Lecture 4.1), Dropping rocks through a hole in the centre of the earth (Lecture 6.1), The fully extended Schwarzschild black hole as evidence for wormholes (Lecture 9.2), and Einstein's physicist in a box, sometimes called the 'elevator' experiment (Lecture 10.1). If you wish to do a thought experiment that is separate from one of these, please contact James or Bryan about it first.
- Comment. Make sure your thesis is sufficiently narrow to complete in a 1,500 word essay. A typical thesis for this essay will have the form, "In the case of the [thought experiment name], the thought experiment [does/doesn't] transcend empiricism."