NB: You are not responsible for reading every text listed; you should choose at least one principal text and 1-2 others based on your interests.
Aim to complete your chosen readings by the date listed.

week date topic reading milestones
1 Tuesday, 26 January Overview; What do we know to be obviously true about the physical world? Can we be sure? Rohrlich, chapters 1-3;
Sklar, pages 1-18		  
Classical Foundations
  Thursday, 28 January Spheres, ferris wheels, & heresy:
Sleepwalking to heliocentrism		 Kuhn, Copernican Revolution, ch. 3, pp. 123-44 & 181-4;
Cushing, chs. 4 & 5;
Koestler, pp. 20-222;
Feynman, ch. 2;
Rohrlich, ch. 4		  
2 Tuesday, 2 February De Brahe, Kepler, & Galileo:
The birth of modern cosmology		 Kuhn, Copernican Revolution, pp. 200-37;
Cushing, ch. 6;
Koestler, pp. 227-503		 Homework 1 due
(We know this is short notice, but it's needed to get you started thinking AHEAD of lecture.)
  Thursday, 4 February From Kepler to Newton; The meaning
(& ambiguities) of Newton's laws		 Cushing, chs. 7–9;
Rohrlich, ch. 5		  
3 Tuesday, 9 February Newtonian space & time Cushing, ch. 11;
Sklar, pp. 19-25;
Rohrlich, ch. 5		  
Transition to Modern Physics
  Thursday, 11 February Causality, determinism, & all that Bohm, pp. 1-10;
Cushing, ch. 12;
Sklar, pp. 79-85 & 202-4;
Feynman, ch 4;
Gettier, 'Is justified true belief knowledge?'		 Homework 2 due
4 Tuesday, 16 February Conservation laws;
The limits of the classical world		 Sklar, pp. 94-117, 121-32,
& 142-55;
Bohm, pp. 10-33;
Feynman, ch. 5;
Knobe, 'Intentional action and side-effects in ordinary language';
Vihvelin, review with Frankfurt examples		  
  Thursday, 18 February Waves, Maxwell, & invariance Einstein, chs. 1-8;
Cushing, chs. 13 & 14;
Rohrlich, pp. 49-55		  
5 Tuesday, 23 February From the aether to Einstein's postulates Rohrlich, pp. 55-62 Homework 3 due
Spacetime: Special & General Relativity
  Thursday, 25 February Special relativity Einstein, chs. 9-17;
Cushing, chs. 16 & 17;
Rohrlich, pp. 62-72;
Sklar, pp. 25-40;
Kuhn, Structure of Scientific Revolutions, ch. 10		  
6 Tuesday, 2 March Unification of electricity & magnetism;
E = mc2 & Minkowski space 		Rohrlich, pp. 73-86  
  Thursday, 4 March General relativity Cushing, ch. 18  
7 Tuesday, 9 March Curved spacetime:
The geometry of the Universe?		 Rohrlich, ch. 7;
Sklar, pp. 40-69		 Homework 4 due
  Thursday, 11 March Big bang cosmology:
Will the expansion stop?		 Sklar, pp. 69-90;
Kuhn, Structure of Scientific Revolutions		  
8 Tuesday, 16 March Summary; Philosophical implications;
Paradigms, positivism, & falsification		 Kuhn, Structure of Scientific Revolutions  
Quantum Mechanics, Philosophical Responses & Consciousness
  Thursday, 18 March Two-slits done doubly well Cushing, chs. 19 & 20;
Rohrlich, chs. 9-11;
Sklar, pp. 157-72 		Homework 5 due
9 Tuesday, 23 March no class!    
  Thursday, 25 March The fuzzy reality of quantum mechanics Cushing, ch. 21;
Rohrlich, ch. 11;
Sklar, ch. 4		 419: term paper consultations (see Prof. Phillips)
10 Tuesday, 30 March Einstein loses the quantum reality battle Cushing, ch. 22;
Sklar, pp.202-26;
Rohrlich, pp. 169-80		 Homework 6 due
  Thursday, 1 April Consciousness: Functionalism Handouts (see Compass);
Sklar, pp.153-4		  
11 Tuesday, 6 April Consciousness: Physicalism Handouts (see Compass) 419: term paper topic/ abstract due
Time & Cosmology
  Thursday, 8 April Primer on probability Rohrlich, ch 9;
Sklar, pp. 92-108		 Homework 7 due
12 Tuesday, 13 April no class    
  Thursday, 15 April Arrow of time Cushing, ch. 18;
Hawking, ch. 9;
Sklar, pp. 121-54		 419: term paper outline/ partial draft due
13 Tuesday, 20 April Cosmology Hawking, chs. 1 & 2  
  Thursday, 22 April Black holes: AMPS Paradox Hawking, ch. 6  
14 Tuesday, 27 April Cosmology/ inflation;
The beginning & end of time;
What is there? How much is there?
What about entropy?		 Hawking, chs. 3 & 9 419: term paper rough draft due
  Thursday, 29 April The anthropic principle Hawking, ch. 8  
15 Tuesday, 4 May Theories of unification Cushing, ch. 25;
Hawking, ch. 11		  
         
  Thursday, 6 May Reading Day   419: final term paper due
  Monday, 10 May Final Exam, 8a–11a   419: final term paper due