Lecture Topics and Readings

Classical Representation - The Greeks

0. Welcome and introduction to ISP213H.
 Reading: The Two Cultures, by C.P.Snow (for Journal Introduction)

1. History and Art of Classical Times.
 Reading: Park: C1 & 2; from Koestler: P1, C1-3 (Sleepwalkers_greeks);

2. The PreSocratics.
 Reading: Park: C1 & 2; Koestler: C1-3 (Sleepwalkers_greeks);

3. Plato, Aristotle, and Greek Astronomy.
Reading: Park: C3 - 6; Koestler: C4 & 5; [Ionian Thinkers , by C.D.C. Reeve; Plato from Stanford Encyclopedia of Phil.; Aristotle's Metaphysics from Stanford Encyclopedia of Phil. ]

Pious Representation - The Middle Ages

1. Mediaeval Natural Science and the Early Renaissance.
Reading: Koestler: P2, C1, 2, & 3 (Sleepwalkers_medieval); Park: C 7-8; Byzantine Art in Italy(pdf)

2. History and Art of Renaissance Times.
Reading: [Art of Giotto; Early Renaissance Art]

Scientific Knowledge

Scientific Knowledge -
Introduction to: the philosophy of science
1. Logic and Observation.
Reading: "Scientific Reasoning," and "Explanation in Science," ["Realism and Anti-Realism"], all from Philosophy of Science, Samir Okasha. "Of the Idea of necessary Connexion Part I and Part II ", from David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
2. Historicist Philosophies and Ideas of Realism in Science.
Reading: Scientific Change and Scientific Revolution from Philosophy of Science, Samir Okasha; ["Historicist Theories of Rationality," Stanford Ency. of Phil. ; "Lakatos' Scientific Method," by Arun Bala.]

Faithful Representation

Faithful Representation -
The Renaissance: the beginnings of imitative Representation
1. Copernicus' Astronomy.
Reading: Park: C9;
2. Tycho and Kepler's Astronomy.
Reading: [Park: C10...Park mixes Galileo & Newton]
3. Galileo's Physics and Descartes' Mechanical Philosophy.
Reading: Segre: C1, up to Huygens; March C1-2

Precise Representation

Precision Representation -
The first scientific era: Newton and the Enlightenment
1. Newton's Physics - the Calculus, his mechanics and Graviation.
Reading: Park: C11; Segre: C2; March: C3-4;
2. Newtonian Space and Time.
Reading: Park: C12
3. Energy and Heat.
Reading: Park: C13 (through section, "Death"); March, C5.
4. Light.
Reading: Park: C13 (from section, "Light and Color"); Segre: (Falling Bodies...): C3; March, C7.
5. Early Electricity.
Reading: Segre: (Falling Bodies...): C4 (through "Fresh Look...")

Modern Representation

Modern Representation-
Beyond the surface: the 19th Century
1. History and Art of the Times.
2. Electrostatics and Faraday.
Reading: March: C6
3. Electromagnetism of Maxwell.
Reading: continued reading of Segre Segre: (Falling Bodies...): C4
4. The Introduction of Statistical Methods into Physics by Boltzmann.
Reading: Segre: (Falling Bodies...): C6 (through "Real Gases..")
5. All of the Sudden: nothing makes sense.
Reading: March, C8; Segre: (X-Ray to Quarks...): C1-and C2;

Abstract Representation

Abstract Representation-
Innerspace / Outerspace: the 20th Century
1. The Quantum - Planck.
Reading: March, C13 & 15; Segre: (X-Ray to Quarks...): C4
2. The Special Theory of Relativity - Einstein.
Reading: March, C9-11; Segre: (X-Ray to Quarks...): C5; [Park, C14]
3. Picasso's World.
4. The Quantum Theory: photon, electron, nucleus.
Reading: March, C14 & 16; Segre: (X-Ray to Quarks...): C6 and C7; [Park, C15]
5. Quantum Mechanics.
Reading: March, C17-18; Segre: (X-Ray to Quarks...): C8; [Park, C16]
6. Creation of Matter in the Laboratory...and in the Mountains.
Reading: Segre: (X-Ray to Quarks...): C9 and C10
7. Particles Proliferate: Quarks.
Reading: March, 19; Segre: (X-Ray to Quarks...): C12 and C13; [Park, C17]
8. Particle Physics Experiments and World-Laboratories.
Reading: Segre: (X-Ray to Quarks...): C11
9. General Relativity and Gravity.
Reading: March, C12; Park, C18
9. Cosmology: the beginning and...more beginning.