Schedule
HPS 2626 Recent Topics in Philosophy of Physics   Fall 2004

This page is http://www.pitt.edu/~jdnorton/teaching/philphys/schedule. This schedule will be updated weekly.
Main course site at http://www.pitt.edu/~jdnorton/teaching/philphys
Updated December 7, 2004.

Schedule

DateTopicReadingPresenter
1 31 August Introduction The Three Principal Problems of Philosophy of Modern Physics and the ensuing survey of recent literature. Norton
2 7 September Philosophy of Space and Time, Symmetries and Gauges
The principle of relativity; the relativity of acceleration in Newtonian cosmology
Gauge freedoms: Newtonian gravitation theory and classical electrodynamics
 Norton, J. D. "The Force of Newtonian Cosmology: Acceleration is Relative" Philosophy of Science, 62 (1995), pp.511-22. Download.
Handout on gauge freedoms
 Norton
3 14 September The hole argument
 Norton, J. D. "The Hole Argument," Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/spacetime-holearg/ Norton
3 14 September Bohm Aharonov Effect Healey, R. "Nonlocality and the Aharonov-Bohm Effect,"Philosophy of Science, 64(1997), pp. 18-41. STARTED... Sam Thomsen
4 21 September ( to be completed September 28) Bohm Aharonov Effect Healey, R. "Nonlocality and the Aharonov-Bohm Effect,"Philosophy of Science, 64(1997), pp. 18-41. Sam Thomsen
4 21 September Bohm Aharonov Effect: Generated from first principles Healey, R. "Nonlocality and the Aharonov-Bohm Effect,"Philosophy of Science, 64(1997), pp. 18-41; Section 2. Handout. Norton
5 28 September Bohm Aharonov Effect Ponder and bring written answers to these questions:
What precisely is in need of explanation in the Bohm-Aharanov effect?
What does it take to explain things like this?
What examples are there of this sort of explanation?
My answers 		All
5-6 28 September - 5 October Bohm Aharonov Effect Batterman, R. "Falling cats, parallel parking, and polarized light", Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, 34 (2003), pp. 527-57.
 Or Neeman
6 5 October Bohm Aharonov Effect Nounou, A. M. "A fourth way to the Aharonov-Bohm Effect." Ch. 10 in K. Brading and E. Castellani, eds., Symmetries in Physics: Philosophical Reflections. Cambridge University Press, 2003. Benny Goldberg--briefly
6 5 October Bohm Aharonov Effect Healey, R. "On the Reality of Gauge Potentials," Philosophy of Science, 68 (2001), pp. 432-55.
 Norton--very briefly
7 12 October Deeper Reflections on Gauge Redhead, M. "The Interpretation of Gauge Symmetry," Ch. 7 in K. Brading and E. Castellani, eds., Symmetries in Physics: Philosophical Reflections. Cambridge University Press, 2003. Alexandre Guay
8 19 October How to use mathematical structures to represent physical systems. Norton, J. D. "Geometries in Collision: Einstein, Klein and Riemann." in J. Gray, ed., The Symbolic Universe. Oxford University Press, pp.128-144. Download Norton
8 19 October (completed November 2) The exploitation of the notion of symmetry and intertransformability in general philosophy of science. Ismael, J. and Van Fraassen, B. "Symmetry as a Guide to Superfluous Theoretical Structure," Ch. 23 in K. Brading and E. Castellani, eds., Symmetries in Physics: Philosophical Reflections. Cambridge University Press, 2003. Balazs Gyenis
9 26 October (Completed briefly on 2 November) Einstein and the vexed problem of whether general relativity extends the principle of relativity to acceleration. Norton, J. D. "Did Einstein Stumble: The Debate over General Covariance," Erkenntnis, 42 (1995) , pp.223-245; volume reprinted as Reflections on Spacetime: Foundations, Philosophy, History. U. Maier and H,-J Schmidt (eds.), Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1995.
For background: Norton, J. "General Covariance and the Foundations of General Relativity: Eight Decades of Dispute," Reports on Progress in Physics, 56 (1993) , pp.791-858. Download. 		Norton
10 2 November How to use mathematical structures to represent physical systems. Norton, J. D. "The Formal Equivalence of Grue and Green and How It Undoes the New Riddle of Induction." Synthese, forthcoming. Download Norton
11 9 November Philosophy of statistical physics.
The classic problems: the recurrence objection and the reversibility objection (and more).
 L. Sklar, "The Introduction of Probability into Physics," Ch. 3 in Philosophy of Physics.Westview. Start reading at p.109. Norton
12 16 November Essay proposals due.
12 16 November Asymmetry of time Brown, H. R. and Uffink, J. "The Origins of Time-Asymmetry in Thermodynamics: The Minus First Law," Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, 32 (2001), pp. 525-38. Jos Uffink
Thursday 18 Nov. - Saturday 20 Nov. PSA, Austin, Texas.
13 23 November Phase transitions: how it is done in statistical physics J. M. Yeomans, Statistal Mechanics of Phase Transitions, Clarendon, 1992. Ch. 1 Introduction. (For your information I also have Ch. 8 The Renormalization Group since it is the basis of the development I'll give in class. It probably cannot be read independently.)
A nice simulation of a 2D Ising model.		 Norton
13 23 November Asymptotic explanation and the renormalization group. "Asymptotic Explanation," pp. 37-44 of Chapter 4 in R. W. Batterman, The Devil in the Details. Oxford University Press, 2002.
 Norton
Wednesday 24 Nov. - Sunday 28 Nov. Thanksgiving recess
14 November 30 Phase transitions and the thermodynamic limit. Callender, C. "Taking Thermodynamics Too Seriously," Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, 32 (2001), pp. 501-635.
Batterman, Robert (2004) "Critical Phenomena and Breaking Drops: Infinite Idealizations in Physics." Download from philsci-archive		 Michael Tamir and Michael Reed
15 7 December Platonism in mathematical physics. Wigner, E., "The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences", Communications on Pure and Applied Mathematics, 13 (1960), pp. 1-14.
Related paper by Dirac.		 Holly Andersen
15 7 December Platonism in mathematical physics. Dirac, P. A. M., "The Relationship Between Mathematics and Physics," (1939) in Collected Works of P. A. M. Dirac: 1924-48 R. H. Dalitz, ed., Cambridge University Press, 1995. Download Holly Andersen
15 7 December Platonism in mathematical physics. Davey, K. "Unreasonable Effectiveness: Historical/Aesthetic" and "Unreasonable Effectiveness: Descriptive" Chs. 7-8 in Problems in Applying Mathematics: On the Inferential and Representational Limits of Mathematicsin Physics. PhD. Dissertation, Dept. of Philosophy, University of Pittsburgh, 2003. http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-10292003-081734/ Feisal Ben Hassel
Noon, Thursday 16 December. Essay due in 1017CL.


Well, we thought we'd have time to cover these topics, but...

Earman, J. and Norton, J. D. "Exorcist XIV: The Wrath of Maxwell's Demon." Studies in the History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, Part I "From Maxwell to Szilard" 29(1998), pp.435-471; Part II: "From Szilard to Landauer and Beyond," 30(1999), pp.1-40. Download
Norton, J. D. "Eaters of the Lotus: Landauer's Principle and the Return of Maxwell's Demon." Prepared for New Directions in the Foundations of Physics, American Institute of Physics, College Park, MD. April 30-May 2, 2004. Download from http://www.pitt.edu/~jdnorton/homepage/cv.html

Norton J. D. "'Nature in the Realization of the Simplest Conceivable Mathematical Ideas?: Einstein and the Canon of Mathematical Simplicity," Studies in the History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, 31 (2000), pp.135-170. Download

Modal interpretations of quantum theory Dickson, M. "The Modal Interpretations of Quantum Theory," Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qm-modal/