PHIL 351.001 – Philosophy of Physics

Instructor: John T. Roberts. This course meets MWF 10:10 – 11:00 a.m. in PE 2066.

This course will be an introductory survey of the philosophy of physics.  There will be no specific physics or math pre-requisites, but I will assume that students are comfortable with basic algebra of vectors and with the basics of Newtonian physics.

We will wrestle with such questions as:  What is velocity?  What is mass?  What is a force?  What is a physical field?  What are space and time?  What does it mean for something to be a ‘law’ of physics?  We will also have a brief look at some of the philosophical puzzles posed by quantum mechanics.

Prerequisite: 1 PHIL course.