“It appears more natural to think of physical reality as a four-
dimensional existence, instead of, as hitherto, the evolution of a
three-dimensional existence”. Nothing better than Einstein’s words
epitomizes the impact of his theories of relativity, the special and
the general, on the way we think about space and time. In this
course we shall discuss the philosophical questions that modern
spacetime theories raise, and prepare ourselves to learn and
understand relativity theory, the basis to our current understanding
of spacetime.

Topics will include: Is space(time) a substance? Is simultaneity
conventional?  Is physical geometry and topology conventional?  What
is a singularity?  Does relativity prove that time doesn’t flow?
These fascinating topics and others have enjoyed extensive treatment
in the physics and philosophical literature.  Along the way we will
learn about various classical spacetimes, Minkowski spacetime and
then even a few interesting general relativistic spacetimes.
All the physics/math necessary for the course will be taught in
class; the class will definitely be accessible to humanities
students and conceptually challenging to both humanities and science
majors.