Instructor: Brad Skow.
Teaching Assistants / Graders: Rose Lenehan (rlenehan@mit.edu), Ian Wells (ianwells@mit.edu).
Meetings: MWF, 11-12, room 4-237.
Description: Available here.
Requirements: Homework assignments (precise number to be announced), 40%; 4-5 page paper, 30%; final exam, 30%.
Regarding the homework assignments: you will not receive a letter grade on them, just written feedback. Your grade for the homework component of the course is equal to the number of assignments you complete, divided by the total number assigned. (You complete an assignment if you make a fair try at answering the questions on it.)
Regarding the paper: you may revise your paper after it is first graded, for a new grade. Your grade for the paper component of the course is the higher of the two.
Resources: Guidelines for writing philosophy papers.
Handouts/"slides" from class:
Homework "solutions":
Unit 1: Time and Metaphysics
| Date | Topic | Reading |
| 9/3 | Introductory Class. | |
| 9/5 | What do philosophers mean when they ask "does time pass?" Handout. Remarks on determinism question. | •Smart, "The River of Time," p. 483-84, up to "...somehow illegitimate." •Markosian, "How Fast Does Time Pass?" sections 1, 2. •Price Time's Arrow pp. 12-13 (stop after first underlined sentence on 13). |
| 9/8 | What do philosophers mean, continued; Arguments. Handout on arguments, with "HW" 1. | In-class video. |
| 9/10 | Argument Extraction; The Rate of Passage Arguments. | •Smart p. 484, to first paragraph of 485. •Markosian section 3. |
| 9/12 | No class: instructor away. | |
| 9/15 | More on the Rate of Passage Arguments. | HW2 due in class. |
| 9/17 | The Direction of Passage Argument; Price's Argument from Indiscernible Experiences. | •Price p.13, "A rare but..." paragraph; •p.14 "So it is doubtful..." to footnote 4 on p. 15. |
| 9/19 | No class: student holiday. | |
| 9/22 | Maudlin's Replies. | •Maudlin, "On the Passing of Time," p. 9, "Price also mentions...," to end of section 1; •p. 15, "Price raises..." to end of section 3. HW3, due in class. |
| 9/24 | Does Experience Support Passage? | •Prosser, "Could We Experience the Passage of Time," sections 1 and 2, and objection/reply 7. |
| 9/26 | Class discussion / Debate. | An argument for the moving spotlight theory. |
Unit 2: Time and the Mind, I
| 9/29 | The puzzle of the perception of change. | Reid, "Memory," p. 144 "After these remarks..." to top of 146. |
| 10/1 | Neuroscience and the perception of change. The theory of the specious present. | Specious present reading packet. |
| 10/3 | The argument from jumbled sounds; The argument from repetition. | HW4 due in class. |
| 10/6 | The Retention Theory. | Retention theory reading packet. |
| 10/8 | The color phi illusion; Stalinesque vs Orwellian hypotheses. | Dennett, Consciousness Explained, chapter 5; chapter 6, sections 1 and 2. |
| 10/10 | Experiments to distinguish Stalinesque vs Orwellian hypotheses? | HW5 due in class. |
| 10/13 | No class: Columbus Day. | |
| 10/15 | Against the Cartesian Theater? | (Dennett, continued.) |
| 10/17 | advertisement. |
Unit 3: Time and the Mind, II
| 10/20 | What is subjective duration?; Illusions of duration. | Eagleman, "Human Time Perception and Its Illusions." |
| 10/22 | No class: instructor away. | |
| 10/24 | No class: instructor away. | |
| 10/27 | The naive model of subjective duration. | Phillips, "Perceiving the Passage of Time." HW6 due in class. |
| 10/29 | A "quantum" theory. | Merino-Rajme, "A Quantum Feeling of Felt Duration." |
| 10/31 | Continued. |
Unit 4: Time and Value, I
| 11/3 | Theories of welfare; atomic theories; hedonism. | Feldman, Pleasure and the Good Life, chs. 1, 2. HW7 due in class. |
| 11/5 | Is Hedonism True? | hedonism HW due. |
| 11/7 | Is Hedonism True? | |
| 11/10 | No Class: Veteran's Day. | |
| 11/12 | Hedonism and time: distribution, subjective duration. | |
| 11/14 | Hedonism and time: the peak-end effect. | Kahneman et al, "Memories of a Colonoscopy." |
| 11/17 | Welfare and "the shape of a life." | Velleman, "Well-Being and Time," to the top of p.73. |
| 11/19 | Attitudinal Hedonism and the shape of a life. | Feldman ch. 4.1-4.3; ch. 6. |
| 11/21 | The Bias Toward the Near. | Parfit, excerpt from Reasons and Persons. First paper due. |
Unit 5: Time and Value, II
| 11/24 | Is the bias toward the near rational? | |
| 11/26 | Class canceled for Thanksgiving. | |
| 11/28 | Thanksgiving break | |
| 12/1 | Is the bias toward the near rational? | Greene and Sullivan, "Against Time Bias." |
| 12/3 | Is the bias toward the future rational? | Greene and Sullivan, continued. |
| 12/5 | Is the bias toward the future rational? |
| 12/8 | Conclusion: Time, Value, and Metaphysics. | |
| 12/10 | Final Exam Review Session. |