Postgraduate Course: Philosophy of Time Travel (Online) (PHIL11201)
Course Outline
| School | School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
| Course type | Online Distance Learning |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This is an optional course intended to appeal to students on both the online MSc. programmes in Philosophy, Science and Religion, and the online MSc. in Epistemology, Ethics and Mind. This course will offer detailed seminars on key issues in the philosophy of time travel, largely with an analytical slant. Students should end this course conversant with a range of significant metaphysical (and other) issues surrounding time travel. No detailed logical, scientific or metaphysical expertise will be assumed, and the course is intended to be accessible to students with a wide range of philosophical interests and aptitudes. |
| Course description |
Students who successfully complete this course will have received a thorough grounding in all philosophical aspects of the current time travel debate and should be equipped to discuss critically a range of relevant, contemporary philosophical issues in metaphysics and elsewhere. The learning experience will help to develop further students' philosophical skills, and to extend and deepen their philosophical knowledge, acquired in previous philosophy courses.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- engage critically and reflectively with a range of current metaphysical (and other philosophical) issues
- use written and online discussion resources to share ideas and arguments with their peers and with teaching staff
- engage critically with key textual sources in the field
- engage constructively in cross-disciplinary conversations
- have demonstrated an openness to personal growth through a commitment to constructive dialogue across intellectual and cultural boundaries
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Reading List
Week 1
Introducing the Debate - What is Time Travel?
The Lewisian Analysis.
Recommended reading:
David Lewis,'The Paradoxes of Time Travel', The American Philosophical Quarterly, 13, 1976: 145-52. Much reprinted in (for examples) The Philosophy of Time, (edd. Robin Le Poidevin and Murray MacBeath), (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1993): 134-46 and in Metaphysics: The Big Questions, ed. D. Zimmerman and P. van Inwagen, (Oxford, Blackwell, 1998): 159-169. Online at: http://www.csus.edu/indiv/m/merlinos/Paradoxes%20of%20Time%20Travel.pdf
AR, 'Recent Work: Time Travel', Philosophical Books, 44, 2003: 297-309. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1468-0149.00308
Useful background / of related interest:
Barry Dainton, Time and Space, EITHER 2001 edition, Chapter 8, 110-113, 116-119; OR 2010 edition, 121-124; 127-130.
Paul Horwich, 'On Some Alleged Paradoxes of Time Travel', The Journal of Philosophy, LXXII, 1975: 432-444.
Week 2
Developments of, and Objections to, the Lewisian Analysis.
Recommended reading:
Phil Dowe, 'The Case for Time Travel', Philosophy, 75, 2000, 441-451.
William Grey, 'Troubles With Time Travel', Philosophy, 74, 1999: 55-70.
Useful background / of related interest:
Jonathan Harrison, 'Dr. Who and the Philosophers or Time-Travel for Beginners', Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Volume, 1971: 1-24.
Jonathan Harrison, 'Analysis Problem No. 18', Analysis, 39, 1979: 65-66.
Jonathan Harrison, 'Report on Analysis Problem No. 18', Analysis, 40: 65-9.
Week 3
A) Introducing Relativity.
Barry Dainton, Time and Space, EITHER 2001 edition, Chapters 16 and 18, 254-68, 284-300; OR 2010 edition, Chapters 18 and 20, 313-327; 343-367.
Craig Bourne, A Future for Presentism, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2006, Ch. 5: 141-159. (Whole book available electronically via the Main Library.)
Robert Weingard, 'General Relativity and the Conceivability of Time Travel', Philosophy of Science, 46, 1979: 328-32.
Further reading:
John Earman 1972: 'Implications of Causal Propagation Outside the Null Cone', Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 50, 1972: 222-237.
Hajnal Andréka, Judit X. Madarász, István Németi and A. Andai, 'Visualizing Some Ideas About Gödel-type Rotating Universes', (2002), draft available at: www.math-inst.hu/pub/algebraic-logic/goduniv/goduniv11.ps.gz
Sean Carroll, 'Lecture Notes on General Relativity', 1997, archived at: http://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/9712019
B) Gödel and the Unreality of Time
Recommended reading:
Barry Dainton, Time and Space, EITHER 2001 edition, Chapter 19, 314-19; OR 2010 edition, 381-386.
Craig Bourne, A Future for Presentism, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2006, Ch. 8: 204-224. (Whole book available electronically via the Main Library.)
Steven S. Savitt, 'The Replacement of Time', Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 72, 1994: 463-74.
Useful background / of related interest:
Palle Yourgrau, The Disappearance of Time: Kurt Gödel and the Idealistic Tradition in Philosophy, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1991.
Palle Yourgrau, Gödel Meets Einstein: Time Travel in the Gödel Universe, La Salle / Chicago, Open Court, 1999.
Palle Yourgrau, A World Without Time: The Forgotten Legacy of Gödel and Einstein, New York, Basic Books, 2005.
Week 4
The Cheshire Cat Problem and Other Spatial Perplexities.
Recommended reading:
Robin Le Poidevin, 'The Cheshire Cat Problem and Other Spatial Obstacles to Backwards Time Travel', The Monist, 88, 2005: 336-352. Access via 'Philosophy Online':
http://www.pdcnet.org/collection/show?id=monist_2005_0088_0003_0336_0352&file_type=pdf&page=1
AR, 'Time Travel, Hyperspace and Cheshire Cats', Synthese 2017, online: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11229-017-1448-2
Sara Bernstein, 'Nowhere Man: Time Travel and Spatial Location', Midwest Studies in Philosophy, 39, 2015: 158-168
Useful background / of related interest:
Robin Le Poidevin, 'The Chemistry of Space', Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 72, 1994: 77-88.
G. J. Whitrow, 'Why Physical Space Has Three Dimensions', The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 6, (1955), 13-31.
Cody S. Gilmore, 'Time Travel, Coinciding Objects and Persistence', Oxford Studies in Metaphysics, III, 2007 pre-print on-line at: http://www.unomaha.edu/philosophy/TTCOandPmay05.pdf
Week 5
Causal Loops Revisited (Part One): 'Jane', Jocasta, Dee and Dum.
Information Loops and Object Loops.
Recommended reading:
Richard Hanley, 'No End in Sight: Causal Loops in Philosophy, Physics and Fiction', Synthese, 141, 2004: 123-52.
Jonathan Harrison, 'Analysis Problem No. 18', Analysis, 39, 1979: 65-66.
Useful background / of related interest:
Jonathan Harrison, 'Report on Analysis Problem No. 18', Analysis, 40: 65-9.
Margarita R. Levin, 'Swords' Points', Analysis, 40, 1980: 69-70.
Phil Dowe and Dylan Evans,'How to 'Clone' Sexually', 1998, MS available online at: http://www.uq.edu.au/~uqpdowe/Research/pdfs/cloning.pdf
Week 6
A) Causal Loops Revisited (Part Two): Mellor and the Facts of Causation.
Recommended reading:
D. H. Mellor, Real Time II, (London, Routledge, 1998), 125-135.
Susan S. Weir, 'Closed Time and Causal Loops: A Defence against Mellor', Analysis, 48, 1988: 203-09.
Useful background / of related interest:
Peter J. Riggs, 'A Critique of Mellor's Argument Against 'Backwards' Causation', The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 42, 1991: 75-86.
B) Time Travel and Non-Turing Computation.
Recommended reading:
AR, 'On Behalf of Spore Gods', Analysis, 2017, online https://academic.oup.com/analysis/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/analys/anx042
AR, 'The Big Pitowsky: Doing Infinitely Many Tasks in (Less Than) No Time At All', MS still in progress.
Useful background / of related interest:
Mark Hogarth, 'Non-Turing Computers and Non-Turing Computability', PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association, 1994, 1: 126-138. JSTOR: http://www.jstor.org/stable/193018
Week 7
Branching-Histories Time Travel.
The Autonomy Principle.
Recommended reading:
David Deutsch and Michael Lockwood, 'The Quantum Physics of Time Travel', Scientific American, March 1994: 68-74.
Theodore Sider, 'A New Grandfather Paradox?', Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, LVII, 1997: 139-144.
John Abbruzzese, 'On Using the Multiverse to Avoid the Paradoxes of Time Travel', Analysis, 61, 2001: 36-38.
Useful background / of related interest:
Timothy Chambers, 'Time Travel: How Not to Defuse the Principal Paradox', Ratio, 12, 1999, 296-301.
Phil Dowe, 'The Coincidences of Time Travel', Philosophy of Science, 70, 2003: 574-589.
Kadri Vihvelin, 'What Time Travelers Cannot Do', Philosophical Studies, 81, 1996: 315-330.
Week 8
The Nomological Contrivance Problem.
Bananas-Skins and Tomato-Rolling.
Recommended reading:
Nicholas J. J. Smith, 'Bananas Enough for Time Travel?', British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 48, 1997: 363-89. JSTOR: http://www.jstor.org/stable/688068
Frank Arntzenius and Tim Maudlin, 'Time Travel and Modern Physics', The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2010 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2010/entries/time-travel-phys/
Useful background / of related interest:
G. C. Goddu, 'Banana Peels and Time Travel', Dialectica, 61, 2007: 559-72.
Douglas N. Kutach, 'Time Travel and Consistency Constraints', Philosophy of Science, PSA Supplement to 70, 2003: 1098-1113, pre-print archived at: http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/archive/00001081/
Week 9
A) Travel in Multi-Dimensional Time.
Recommended reading:
J. Meiland, 'A Two-Dimensional Passage Model of Time for Time Travel', Philosophical Studies, 26, 1975: 153-73.
G. C. Goddu, 'Time Travel and Changing the Past (or How to Kill Yourself and Live to Tell the Tale)', Ratio, 16, 2003: 16-32.
Useful background / of related interest:
Daniel King, 'Two-Dimensional Time: MacBeath's 'Time's Square' and Special Relativity', Synthese, 139, 2004: 421-28.
Judith Jarvis Thomson, 'Time, Space and Objects', Mind, 74, 1965: 1-27.
B) Testimony to Time-Travel.
Recommended reading:
Roy Sorensen, 'Time Travel, Parahistory and Hume', Philosophy, 62, 1987: 227-236.
Antony Flew, 'Time Travel and the Paranormal', Philosophy, 63, 1988: 266-8.
Week 10
A) Free Will and Determinism
Recommended reading:
Stephanie Rennick, 'Things Mere Mortals Can Do, But Philosophers Can't', Analysis 75, 2015:22-26
David King, 'Time Travel and Self-Consistency: Implications for Determinism and the Human Condition', Ratio, 12, 1999: 270-8.
Useful background / of related interest:
Gordon Park Stevenson, 'Time Travel, Agency, and Nomic Constraint', The Monist, 88, 2005: 396-412. Access via Philosophy Online:
http://www.pdcnet.org/collection/show?id=monist_2005_0088_0003_0396_0412&file_type=pdf
B) Personal Identity
Recommended reading:
Douglas Ehring, 'Personal Identity and Time Travel', Philosophical Studies, 52, 1987: 427-433. Online at: http://www.springerlink.com/content/w72521356m22h217/fulltext.pdf
Useful background / of related interest:
John Wright, 'Personal Identity, Fission and Time Travel', Philosophia 34, 2006: 129-42.
Week 11
Recapitulation / Revision. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
To help our students develop as:
creative problem solvers, reasoners and researchers
critical, flexible, tolerant and reflective thinkers
effective and influential contributors to discussion in all forms
skilled communicators |
| Keywords | time travel,metaphysics,philosophical skills,debate |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Alasdair Richmond
Tel: (0131 6)50 3656
Email: A.Richmond@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms Becky Verdon
Tel: (0131 6)50 3860
Email: Rebecca.Verdon@ed.ac.uk |
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