Science And Reality In The 20th Century

The 20th century saw many seismic shifts in the theories of science, many of which had profound philosophical implications, challenging our very idea of what we can know about the world. 

This course looks at the scientific revolutions of the 20th century, and how they posed new philosophical questions for how we think about the world. We will cover topics such as Einstein’s relativity, quantum mechanics, and the nature of time in a way that is accessible to non-experts, and does not rely on complicated maths or prior physics knowledge. The course will address questions in the philosophy of science raised by scientists like Einstein, Heisenberg and Schrödinger, including topics such as:

Do things only exist when they are observed?

Are there different possible universes?

What does it mean for space and time to “bend” in a black hole?

Why does time only move in one direction?

Is the universe cyclical?

This course runs from 7th Sept - 12th Oct