Postgraduate Course: Philosophy of Time Travel MSc (Semester 1) (PHIL11103)
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) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | 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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Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2025/26, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 0 |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 22,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
174 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Essay - 100%, 3,000 words |
| Feedback |
Formative essay (due week six) plus classroom / small-group discussion and discussion threads throughout. Formative feedback will be continuous, through regular access to faculty. |
| No Exam Information |
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.
- be able to engage critically with key textual sources in the field.
- be able to 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
Outline / representative reading list as follows - the full reading list is 3-to-4 items per topic but only one reading per topic is cited here for illustrative purposes:
Week 1
Introducing the Debate - What is Time Travel?
The Lewisian Analysis.
- David Lewis, 'The Paradoxes of Time Travel', The American Philosophical Quarterly, 13, 1976: 145-52.
Week 2
Developments of, and Objections to, the Lewisian Analysis.
- Phil Dowe, 'The Case for Time Travel', Philosophy, 75, 2000, 441-451.
Week 3
A) Introducing Relativity.
- Craig Bourne, A Future for Presentism, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2006, Ch. 5: 141-159. (Whole book available electronically via the Main Library.)
B) Gödel and the Unreality of Time
- Steven S. Savitt, 'The Replacement of Time', Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 72, 1994: 463-74.
Week 4
The Cheshire Cat Problem and Other Spatial Perplexities.
Robin Le Poidevin, 'The Cheshire Cat Problem and Other Spatial Obstacles to Backwards Time Travel', The Monist, 88, 2005: 336-352.
Week 5
Causal Loops Revisited (Part One): 'Jane', Jocasta, Dee and Dum.
Information Loops and Object Loops.
- Richard Hanley, 'No End in Sight: Causal Loops in Philosophy, Physics and Fiction', Synthese, 141, 2004: 123-52.
Week 6
A) Causal Loops Revisited (Part Two): Mellor and the Facts of Causation.
- D. H. Mellor, Real Time II, (London, Routledge, 1998), 125-135.
B) Time Travel and Non-Turing Computation.
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.
- Theodore Sider, 'A New Grandfather Paradox?', Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, LVII, 1997: 139-144.
Week 8
The Nomological Contrivance Problem.
Bananas-Skins and Tomato-Rolling.
- 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
Week 9
A) Travel in Multi-Dimensional Time.
- J. Meiland, 'A Two-Dimensional Passage Model of Time for Time Travel', Philosophical Studies, 26, 1975: 153-73.
B) Testimony to Time-Travel.
- Roy Sorensen, 'Time Travel, Parahistory and Hume', Philosophy, 62, 1987: 227-236.
Week 10
A) Free Will and Determinism
- Stephanie Rennick, 'Things Mere Mortals Can Do, But Philosophers Can't', Analysis 75, 2015:22-26
B) Personal Identity
- Douglas Ehring, 'Personal Identity and Time Travel', Philosophical Studies, 52, 1987: 427-433. Online at: http://www.springerlink.com/content/w72521356m22h217/fulltext.pdf
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 Olivia Coltman
Tel:
Email: ocoltman@ed.ac.uk |
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