Course Syllabus
First Week: Sacred Times
#1 M 1/4 Course Introduction. Lahr/Pastor
Genesis and Revelation: a discussion of mythical times. Pastor
#2 W 1/6 On Calendars : the mathematical ritualization of time. Lahr
#3 F 1/8 Time and Order. Lahr/Pastor/Discussion
Second Week: Listen to the Greeks
#4 M 1/11 Time /Space : Plato and Aristotle. Lahr
#5 W 1/13 Time, Myth, and Labyrinths. Pastor
#6 F 1/15 Modes of Reasoning. Lahr/Pastor/Discussion
Third Week: Crossing the Boundaries: Philosophers and Mathematicians
No class Monday 1/18: Martin Luther King Day. Meet Tuesday (x-hour).
#7 Tu 1/19 From Aristotle's time to Zeno's paradoxes. Lahr
• Written Assignment 1 due.
#8 W 1/20 Borges' Death and the Compass and Zeno's paradoxes. Pastor
#9 F 1/22 Looking for cracks with the Sophists. Lahr/Pastor/Discussion
Fourth Week: Children of the Renaissance
#10 M 1/25 The heart and the Pendulum: Galileo's Time/Space. Lahr
#11 W 1/27 A peculiar view of time: Ruins, Ashes, Change, Death. Pastor
#12 F 1/29 Clocks: making and keeping time. Lahr/Pastor/Discussion
Fifth Week: A World of Reason
#13 M 2/1 Newton and Rates of Change. Lahr
• MidTerm due.
#14 W 2/3 From Descartes' dream to Goya's nightmares. Pastor
#15 F 2/5 The Scientific Revolution: masters of the universe. Lahr/Pastor/Discussion
Sixth Week: Time to Reconsider
#16 M 2/8 Time and psychoanalysis, time and revolution. Pastor
#17 W 2/10 Utopian orders and contradictory realities.Lahr/Pastor/Discussion
No class Friday 2/12: Winter Carnival
Seventh Week: On Relativity
#18 M 2/15 Einstein and Relativity. Lahr
• Written Assignment 2 due.
#19 W 2/17 Travelling through time: From H.G. Wells to Cortázar. Pastor
#20 F 2/19 Time Dilation and Length Contraction. Lahr
Eighth Week: Time as the Fourth Dimension
#21 M 2/22 Einstein and Space-Time. Lahr
#22 W 2/24 Surrealism, Cubism and the Avantgarde. Pastor
#23 F 2/26 Models of time in 100 Years of Solitude. Lahr/Pastor/Discussion
Ninth Week: No Time/New Times: Towards the year 2000
#24 M 3/1 Einstein's Legacy. Lahr
#25 W 3/3 Smashing the clocks in 100 Years of Solitude. Pastor
#26 F 3/5 Time: dissolutions and reconceptualizations. Lahr/Pastor/Discussion
Tenth Week: Past, Present, and Elsewhere
#27 M F 3/8 Conclusions. Lahr/Pastor/Discussion
Course Evaluations.
• Final paper is due on Friday, March 12, the first day of final exams.
