Spring 2006. W, 3:35-6:05. Bartlett 109.
Instructor: Brad Skow. (follow link for contact information.)
I have ordered copies of the following books at Amherst books:
Term paper of about twenty pages.
Enrolled students are strongly encouraged, but not required, to give a class presentation.
("*" indicates optional reading that may not be discussed in class.)
Introduction
2/1:
Van Fraassen, Laws and Symmetries, ch 1
Empiricism: The Naive Regularity Theory
2/8:
Earman, A Primer on Determinism, pp.80-87 (in the filing cabinet)
Carroll, "The Humean Tradition," sections I-III (jstor)
Armstrong, What is a Law of Nature?, chs. 1,2,4
*Earman and Roberts, "Contact with the Nomic, Part I"
*White, "Explanation as a Guide to Induction" section 2
Anti-Empiricism: the Armstrong-Tooley-Dretske Theory
2/15:
Armstrong, What is a Law of Nature?, ch. 6
Dretske, "Laws of Nature" (jstor)
Van Fraassen, Laws and Symmetry chs. 5.1-5.3
Lewis, "New Work for a Theory of Universals" pp. 39-40
*Tooley, "The Nature of Laws"
*Armstrong, chs. 7, 8, 10
*Van Fraassen ch. 6
Empiricism: The Mill-Ramsey-Lewis Theory
2/22:
Lewis, Counterfactuals pp.73-75
Lewis, "New Work for a Theory of Universals," pp.39-43
Lewis, "Humean Supervenience Debugged," pp.231-233
Earman, A Primer on Determinism, pp.87-90
Armstrong, What is a Law of Nature?, ch. 5.4
Van Fraassen, Laws and Symmetry, ch.3
Carroll, "The Humean Tradition," sections IV, VI
*Earman and Roberts, "Contact with the Nomic, part II"
*Beebee, "The Non-Governing Conception of Laws"
*Loewer, "Humean Supervenience"
Anti-Empiricism: Tim Maudlin's Theory
3/1:
Maudlin, "A Modest Proposal"
Skepticism about Laws
3/8:
Van Fraassen, Laws and Symmetry, pp.19-23; chs. 8.1-8.3
Giere, "Science Without Laws of Nature"
Cartwright, How the Laws of Physics Lie, chs. 3-4
Lange's Theory
3/15:
Lange, Natural Laws in Scientific Practice, ch. 2.1
*Lange ch. 1
3/29:
Lange, ch. 2.2-2.4
4/5:
Lange, ch. 3-4 (skip the appendicies to ch. 4)
*White, "Explanation as a Guide to Induction"
Dispositional Essentialism
4/12:
Shoemaker, "Causality and Properties" (cabinet)
Swoyer, "The Nature of Natural Laws"
Hawthorne, "Causal Structuralism" (cabinet)
*Ellis and Lierse, "Dispositional Essentialism"
Determinism
4/20:
Earman, A Primer on Determinism, ch. 2; Ch. 3.1-3.9 [cabinet]
Melia, "Holes, Haecceitism, and Two Conceptions of Determinism" (skim the sections on general relativity, pay more attention to the rest) [electronic version available through the library; ask jeff for instructions]
*Belot, "New Work for Counterpart Theorists" [jstor]
The Law of Inertia
5/3:
Descartes, The Principles of Philosophy II.36-II.39
Earman and Friedman, "The Meaning and Status of Newton's Law of Inertia" (jstor)
Pooley and Brown, "Minkowski space-time: a glorious non-entity?"
Laws and Symmetry
Wigner, Symmetries and Reflections (excerpts) [cabinet]
Earman, "Laws, Symmetry, and Symmetry Breaking" [google it]
Stanford Encyclopedia Article on Symmetry and Symmetry breaking in physics
Belot, "Notes on Symmetries," sections 1-3.
Special Sciences (by popular demand!)
Fodor, "Special Sciences"
Lange, Chapter 8