| 1 |
Course Introduction |
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| 2 |
Object |
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Primary Reading: |
Jacques Monod: "of
Strange Objects" in Chance and Necessity |
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Secondary Reading: |
Rudolf Arnheim: Entropy
and Art, an Essay on Disorder and Order |
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Isaac Asimov "Thermodynamics" |
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What is an object
endowed with a purpose?
What is causality? |
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| 3 |
Event: Space
Time Relations |
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Primary Reading: |
Alfred Whitehead:
"Nature and Life",
"Time" |
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Secondary Reading: |
Gilles Deleuze: "What
is an event?" |
| |
How are Time/Space
concepts related to experience?
What are they when they are formed?
What is an instant?
What is duration?
What is causality? |
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| 4 |
Space
I: the Birth of Geometry as Measurement and the History
of the Cone of Vision |
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Primary Reading: |
Michel Serres: "Origin
of Language", |
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"Mathematics
and Philosophy", |
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"Origin
of Geometry" in Hermes. |
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Secondary Reading: |
Victor Burgin: "Geometry
and Abjection" |
| |
|
Stephen Kernes: "the
Nature of Space" and "Nature of Time" in the
Culture of Time and Space 1880-1918. |
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|
(the History of Geometry
from Encyclopedia Grolier) |
| 5 |
Space II: Geometry
as Perception |
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| |
Primary Reading: |
Alfred Whitehead:
"the Anatomy of Scientific ideas" chp. 9 and chp.
10, "Space Time and Relativity"
in the Aims of Education and Other Essays |
| |
Secondary Reading: |
Martin Heidegger:
"Building, Dwelling and
Thinking" in Poetry, Language and Thought |
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|
Jean Piaget: "Child's
Conception of Space" chp. 15 in General Conclusions.
The Intuition of Space |
| 6 |
Space
III: Space in Physics and Mechanics |
| |
Primary Reading: |
Alfred Whitehead:
"Space and Motion",
"Objects" |
| |
Secondary Reading: |
Isaac Asimov: "Search
for Knowledge" |
| |
|
Stephen Hawking "Space
and Time" in A Brief History of Time |
| 7* |
Absolute Space |
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| |
Primary Reading: |
Isaac Newton: "Absolute
and Relative Space, Time, and Motion" |
| |
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George Berkeley:
"Criticism of Newton's
Doctrines on Space" |
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Ernst Mach: "Newton's
Views on Time, Space and Motion" |
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(side trip: Rupert
Sheldrake, the Presence of the Past, Morphic Resonance and
the Habits of Nature.) |
| 8* |
Relative Space |
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| |
Primary Reading: |
Gottfried Wilhelm
Leibniz: the Monodology |
| |
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Einstein: the Universe
and Dr. Einstein (by Lincoln Barnett) |
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Secondary Reading: |
David Park: "Time
and Form in the Physical World" |
| 9* |
Relative Time |
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| |
Primary Reading: |
Henri Poincare: "Geometry
and Space" |
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Henri Bergson: "Change" |
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Gilles Deleuze: "Duration
and Immediate Datum" in Bergsonism |
| |
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Hans Reichenbach:
"Coordinative Definitions, Rigid Bodies and Relativity
of Space" |
| |
Secondary Reading: |
Edmund Husserl: "Lived
Experience" |
| |
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Jean Piaget: "Primary
Operations" |
| 10* |
Non-Euclidean
Geometry |
|
| |
Primary Reading: |
Hans Reichenbach:
the Philosophy of Space and Time |
| |
Secondary Reading: |
Maurice Merleau-Ponty:
TBA |
| 11* |
Visualization
of Non-Euclidean Geometry: Space / Time in Art and Architecture |
| |
Primary Reading: |
Patrick A. Heelan:
"Hyperbolic Visual Space" from Space-Perception
and the Philosophy of Science |
| |
Secondary Reading: |
Greg Lynn: "Multiplicitous
and In-Organic Bodies" |
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Gilles Deleuze: the
Fold |
| 12 |
Paper and project
presentations |
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| 13 |
Paper and project
presentations |
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| 14 |
Paper and project
presentations |
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| 15 |
Paper and project
presentations |
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*class discussion
is student moderated. |
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