Foundations Matter is a panoramic view of the human journey toward an understanding of the nature of reality and the nature of humankind. The course explores the progression of ideas from the early musings of philosophers in Ancient Greece, and other cultures, to the emergence of present-day quantum physics and cognitive neuroscience. Among other themes, the course considers the conundrum of knowledge: from an objective or subjective point of view, what, if anything, can we know? How do we know that we know? Is there any synthesis of the eastern and western mindset regarding the understanding of nature and our place within it?
Through the framework of the major worldviews in western civilization, the course explores the development of physics from classical to the present. Classical Physics examines matter at the macroscopic scale through optics, mechanics, electromagnetism, and thermodynamics. Modern Physics peers into the substructure of the universe at subatomic and cosmic scales by means of quantum mechanics, relativity and cosmology. Some of the key contributors to classical physics considered include Euclid, Alhazen, Descartes, Newton, Galilei, Kepler, Maxwell, Hume, Hooke, Euler, Boltzmann, and Kelvin, while to modern physics include Einstein, Bohr, Planck, Heisenberg, Schrödinger, Feynman, Dirac, Pauli, Higgs and Hawking. These scientists have profoundly shaped modern physics, addressing fundamental questions about the nature of matter, energy, space, and time. Their theories and discoveries continue to influence the field and our understanding of the universe today, as well as having ushered technologies that have transformed human life.
In parallel, the exhortation by the Oracle of Delphi ‘Know thyself’ is examined. Notwithstanding scientific advances of the last two millennia, have we made progress toward an understanding of the foundations of human matter and mind. The course invites students to answer that question as they scrutinize contemporary perspectives on the nature of consciousness, self-identity, reality and the concept of truth through the lens of each of the Aristotelian-Medieval, Cartesian, Newtonian, the Modern and Post-modern world views. As well as consider insights from [the principal schools of psychology] behaviourism, humanistic, cognitive, psychoanalytical and biological psychology. The syllabus highlights epigenetics, perception, cognitive development, cognitive frameworks, personality, and happiness.
Exclusion: MSE435