Lehrende/r: Dr. Michael Madary
Veranstaltungsart: Hauptseminar
Anzeige im Stundenplan: HS Metaphysics
Semesterwochenstunden: 2
Unterrichtssprache: Deutsch
Min. | Max. Teilnehmerzahl: 1 | 84
Inhalt: The Ship of Theseus made an annual mission to Delos because of a vow made to Apollo. The ship was preserved over many years, and new parts were added to replace the old parts. Eventually, all of the original parts were replaced. At that time, a museum curator collected all of the old original parts and used them to rebuild the ship for an exhibit. So now we have two ships. One ship making the annual voyage (with no original parts) and another ship in a museum with all of the original parts. Which one is the real Ship of Theseus? This puzzle raises some of the themes we will explore in this course, including identity, material constitution, and the relationship between part and whole (mereology). In addition to these themes, we will cover recent developments of the theory of part and whole to include boundaries and spatial structures (mereotopology). Other themes to be covered include ontological dependence and metaphysical topics in the natural sciences, such as naturalism, reduction and emergence. We will use some formal notation, but no prior knowledge is assumed.
Empfohlene Literatur: Course material will draw from the following texts, among others: Casati, R. and Varzi, A. Parts and Places. MIT Press, 1999. Ladyman, J. and Ross, D. Every Thing Must Go. Oxford, 2007. Rea, M. (ed.) Material Constitution. Rowman & Littlefield, 1997. Simons, P. Parts. Oxford, 1987.
