PHIL41330

This course is all about time and change, which I think are two of the most important, fundamental, and mysterious topics in philosophy. It's open to *all* students, including those with no background in philosophy of time, or in the 'analytic' philosophical tradition. (Many of our readings will come from that tradition, but not all; and as you'll see, the questions and methods are really not specific to one way of doing philosophy. Of all topics, time and change are open to many different approaches!)

We will think about questions such as:

Is the distinction between past, present and future moments absolute, or merely relative? What sort of picture of time do we get from contemporary physics, and should we be willing to modify that picture for purely philosophical reasons? What is change? What is it for time to pass? Could there be time without change? Could there be change without time? Do past and future objects and events exist? Is the existence of the future consistent with our being free? Do ordinary persisting things have temporal as well as spatial parts? Is time travel possible? What is the nature of our experience of time?

Exactly which questions we address will be partly determined by the seminar participants, i.e., by you. So if there's some topic you're especially interested in thinking about, please let me know.

We will investigate the above questions by reading and (more importantly) discussing classic and contemporary articles and book chapters in the philosophy of time. The focus of the seminar will be on discussion and the development of our own ideas, rather than on teaching and lecturing. If you take this seminar, you will gain both an insight into some of the main conceptual tools and theories at play in the philosophy of time as it is practiced today, as well as a chance to use those tools and theories to develop your own ideas.

A nice thing to read if you are interested in learning more is: https://iep.utm.edu/time/. If you'd like to see last year's syllabus before making up your mind, just email me at daniel.deasy@ucd.ie.