Foundations Matter
Toward an Understanding of Matter and Matter Within
The educational foundation of INFORM—a panoramic course bridging physics and philosophy to explore what matter is, how we come to know it, and what that knowledge means for human understanding, meaning and formation.
Course Overview
A panoramic inquiry into that which matters
Foundations Matter provides a panoramic view of the human journey seeking to understand the nature of reality and the nature of humankind.
The course explores the progression of ideas from the early musings of natural philosophers in the Classic Greek period to the emergence of present-day quantum physics, postmodernism philosophy and cognitive neuroscience. Through the framework of major worldviews in western civilization, the course examines the pursuit of knowledge and the interplay of concepts—such as truth and relativity—between two major branches of inquiry—physics and philosophy.
Insights garnered and conundrums uncovered are examined in classical physics (studying matter at macroscopic scales) and modern physics (peering into the substructure of the universe at subatomic and cosmic scales). Concurrently, the Delphic exhortation ‘Know thyself’ is examined, scrutinizing the development of western philosophical and allied perspectives from psychology on the nature of consciousness and the self.
The interchange of ideas and influence of science and philosophy on each other informs a Weltanschauung of the age while disclosing existent parallels and puzzles and the enduring underlying abstract nature of reality.
Motivation
Why Enroll?
The principal reason for this course is to provide an encapsulating view of the tree of knowledge, filling gaps that often exist in the individual’s awareness of scientific and philosophical branches.
The course provides opportunity to exercise critical thinking skills as one is introduced to models of knowing and of validating knowledge. Problem solving abilities will be enhanced via the introduction of wide-ranging structures of knowledge, patterns and connections.
Historical context will enable a deeper appreciation for the science of matter: that which we understand, and that which is yet to be discovered—known and unknown.
In time, this understanding will underpin the student’s professional and personal progress.
The Course
Toward an understanding of matter and matter within
Foundations Matter is a panoramic view of the human journey toward an understanding of the nature of reality and the nature of the self.
The course explores the progression of ideas from the early musings of natural philosophers in the Classic Greek period, and other preceding and contemporary 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? How have our ideas regarding these questions advanced over time?
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 contributors 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 in technologies that have transformed human life.
Concurrently, 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 this question as they scrutinize contemporary perspectives on the nature of consciousness, the self, reality and the concept of truth through the lens of each of the Aristotelian-Medieval, Cartesian, Newtonian, Modern and Post-modern worldviews. In addition, the course also examines insights from the principal schools of psychology: behaviourism, humanism, cognitive, psychoanalytical and biological psychology.
Delivery
Lectures and Tutorials
The course will be delivered through weekly lecture and tutorial sessions, selective reading material and bi-weekly assignments.
This is a graduate-level course which can be taken by MEng, MASc, and PhD students. The course is offered to graduate engineering students across the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering as well as graduate science students in the Faculty of Arts & Science.
Senior undergraduate students can also take the course with appropriate departmental and course instructor approvals. Interested students are requested to contact the instructor at: nazir.kherani “at” utoronto.ca
Class hours
This course comprises 3h lectures held weekly (Thursdays 2pm–5pm) and seminar-style tutorials (Fridays 2pm–4pm). The lectures are in-person.
Course Organization
In addition to the delivery of comprehensive lectures, selective reading material will be assigned weekly.
Bi-weekly assignments comprising reflections and analysis will be based on the selective reading material, whereby students will have the opportunity to compare, contrast, conjecture and present rational compelling views on the nature of reality—using physics and philosophical constructs.
The course includes one research paper and presentation; the presentations will be scheduled during a research seminar day near the end of the term. The course concludes with an in-person final exam.
The course content, delivery and assessment will be in accordance with established University academic standards.
Registration
Open on ACORN.
Themes
Themes Explored by the Course
In the Beginning: Origins, Cosmos, and Matter
How have humans understood the origins of the world?
Creation narratives and ancient cosmologies; mythos and logos; contemporary cosmology and physics; origins of the universe, matter, and complexity.
Ancient Worlds: The Beginnings of Systematic Knowledge
How did early civilizations understand and transform the material world?
Prehistoric knowledge and technology; Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Indus Valley, China, and other early civilizations; astronomy, mathematics, medicine, materials, engineering, architecture, and early conceptions of nature.
Greek Thought: Reality, Knowledge, and the Self
What is real? What can we know? How do we know it? Who or what are we?
The Pre-Socratics; Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle; Hellenistic thought; early theories of matter, causation, knowledge, ethics, and the human person; foundations of Western natural philosophy.
From Antiquity to the Scientific Revolution
How did natural philosophy develop into modern science?
Late Antiquity; the Islamic Golden Age; medieval European thought; transmission and transformation of ancient knowledge; mathematics and experiment; Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, and the emergence of modern physics.
The Modern Turn: Reason, Experience, and the Human Subject
What can we know, how can we know it, and what role do we play in knowing?
The Renaissance and humanism; rationalism and empiricism; Descartes, Locke, Hume, and Kant; the Enlightenment; changing conceptions of nature, knowledge, reason, and the human individual.
The Clockwork Universe: Classical Physics and the Material World
Can nature be understood through universal laws?
Newtonian mechanics and gravitation; thermodynamics; electricity and magnetism; classical optics; determinism, causality, conservation, and the mechanistic conception of nature.
Matter, Life, and Modernity
What happens to our understanding of humanity when nature itself becomes historical?
Evolution and Darwin; nineteenth-century transformations in science and society; idealism and Hegel; Nietzsche; Freud and Jung; changing conceptions of nature, history, the self, and human identity.
The Revolution in Physics
What happens when matter, space, time, and causality cease to behave as expected?
The crisis of classical physics; relativity and quantum mechanics; wave-particle duality; uncertainty, measurement, and probability; implications for our understanding of physical reality.
Twentieth-Century Thought: Reality, Experience, and Meaning
How should human beings understand themselves within the modern world?
Phenomenology and existentialism; Husserl, Heidegger, Kierkegaard, and Sartre; analytic philosophy and Russell; Whitehead and process philosophy; postmodernism and critiques of knowledge, language, and objectivity.
Matter Within: Mind, Brain, Self, and Consciousness
How does matter become—or give rise to—subjective experience?
Neuroscience, cognitive science, and psychology; philosophy of mind; mind-body relationships; theories of consciousness; selfhood, perception, agency, and the continuing problem of subjective experience.
The Contemporary Material World: Physics, Information, and Intelligence
What kind of world are science and technology now revealing—and creating?
Quantum field theory and the Standard Model; contemporary cosmology; information and computation; the microelectronics revolution; artificial intelligence; emerging relationships among matter, information, technology, and human agency.
Matter and Matter Within: Meaning, Ethics, and Human Formation
What does our understanding of the world mean for how we understand ourselves and how we should live?
The nature of reality and the nature of the individual; ethics, meaning, value, purpose, and responsibility; wisdom traditions and the human condition; subjective and unexplained human experiences; science, technology, and Weltanschauung; implications for human formation.
Perspectives
An Integrative Inquiry
Foundations Matter begins with the material world—what it is, where it came from, how we know it, and how humans have learned to transform it—and progressively extends the inquiry to what our understanding of reality means for understanding ourselves.
Across time and civilizations, humans have pursued these questions through science and technology, philosophy and the humanities, metaphysical reflection, and diverse intellectual and wisdom traditions. Each offers distinctive perspectives on reality, knowledge, the human condition, meaning, value, purpose, and how life might be lived.
The course brings these perspectives into conversation without reducing one to another, exploring their convergences, divergences, tensions, and insights.
In doing so, Foundations Matter moves from matter to understanding, from understanding to meaning, and from meaning to human formation—from an inquiry into the material world to an inquiry into matter within.
