CEPL 0902 - Science, Perception & Reality

Institution:

Brown University

Subject:

Description:

Modern science throws light on many of the perennial questions of philosophy, sometimes seeming to confirm or refute old answers and sometimes suggesting new ones. Are sensory qualities, such as colors, in external things or only in our minds? Is the world governed by deterministic laws, and if so, what room is there for freedom of the will? Could space have extra dimensions? Could it obey geometrical laws other than the familiar ones of Euclid? Is time something that flows, or is the world a static four-dimensional manifold? Is time travel possible? Do the laws of classical logic break down at the level of quantum events? Is reality at the quantum level to any significant extent (as some have maintained) an observer-created reality? In this course we will explore these questions, using as food for thought both works of philosophy and elementary expositions of the two major theories of 20th-century physics, relativity theory and quantum mechanics.

Credits:

0.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.brown.edu

Phone Number:

(401) 863-1000

Regional Accreditation:

New England Association of Schools and Colleges

Calendar System:

Semester

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