Thematic Area of the Academic Year 2004/5:
Physics, Cosmology and Theology
Faculty of Philosophy
STOQ Courses 2004/5
Starting from this Academic Year,
we re-insert two courses of sciences in the ordinary curricula of our philosophy and theology students . These courses are «Elements of Calculus. I» (Prof. Giustini) and «Elements of Physics. I» (Prof. Guzzi) [see below]. Both courses are biennial. In this way, PUL revives a glorious tradition in the teaching of sciences that has among its more prestigious lecturers Prof. Enrico Fermi, who taught physics at PUL just before his migration to the United States.
1. fundamental courses
50476
PROF. GIANFRANCO BASTI, Pontifical Lateran University.
Course (I Semester): «The Question of Foundations: From Metalogic to Metaphysics (Dalla Metalogica alla Metafisica)»
Starting from the questions related to the foundations of logic and mathematics in modern theoretical and applied mathematical sciences, the course shows the connections of these problems with some ontological and metaphysical questions, through the contribution of the formal ontology (e.g., the different senses of the terms «existence» in the mathematical language of modern sciences and in the ontological language of the ordinary and philosophical languages).
The course is obligatory for all the students of the specialization in «Logic and Epistemology» in the Faculty of Philosophy .
Bibliography:
G. BASTI, Filosofia della Natura e della Scienza. Vol.I: I Fondamenti, Lateran University Press, Rome, 2003 (exp. ch.1 and ch.2).
E. NAGEL ET AL., Goedel's Proof, New York University Press, New York, 2002 (Revised Edition).
G. BASTI, Analogia, ontologia formale e problema dei fondamenti. (preprint. Downloadable in the lecture notes page of this site).
50569
PROF. GIANFRANCO BASTI, Pontifical Lateran University.
Course (II Semester): «Physics, Metaphysics in front of the Universe Origins (Fisica, Metafisica e le Origini dell'Universo)»
Starting from a short presentation of the main cosmological models in contemporary physics, we deepen the ontological implications (and suppositions) of such models. We discuss more deeply the quantum physics ontology and the ontology of complex system physics, because they imply a strong criticism of the mechanistic ontology by which the results of the Newtonian physics were interpreted at the beginning of the modern age. These ontologies and some of their possible formalizations are compared with the main metaphysical theories on the origin of the universe emerging from the western and eastern thought traditions.
Bibliography:
G. BASTI, Filosofia della Natura e della Scienza. Vol.I: I Fondamenti, Lateran University Press, Rome, 2003 (exp. ch.5 and ch.6).
J. D. BARROW, Ch. L. HARPER JR., P. C. W. DAVIES (Eds.), Science and Ultimate Reality: Quantum Theory, Cosmology, Complexity, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge MA, 2004.
S. HAWKING, A Brief History of Time : The Updated and Expanded Tenth Anniversary Edition, Bantam, 1998.
S. HAWKING & R. PENROSE, The Nature of Space and Time, Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ, 2000.
S. WEINBERG, The First Three Minutes: A Modern View of the Origin of the Universe, Basic Books, 1993.
R. FEYNMAN, QED, Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ, 1988.
F.CAPRA, The Tao of Physics, Shambhala, 2000.
N. B. COCCHIARELLA, "Logic and Ontology", Axiomathes 12: 117–150, 2001.(Downloadable in the lecture notes page of this site).
2. intensive courses
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These courses (50566, 50546, 55142 and 50567) are organically inserted into the Specialization Programme (Licenza), Theoretical Section of "Gnosiology and Metaphysics " (II Level), as well as in the Doctorate Programme (III Level). For more information on these Programs, go to the relative web page of the Philosophy Faculty at the Lateran University official web site.
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However, also students of the Second Year of the First Level (Bachelor Degree, Baccalaureato) can follow these courses at a profit, with a special permission of the Dean. The courses suppose indeed only a sufficient knowledge of the elementary formal logic and of its symbolism (i.e., the attendance at 50101 and 50104 courses of the First Year).
50567
PROF. GIORGIO PALUMBO (Dept. of Physics, University of Bologna)
«Elements of Physical Cosmology»
(Intensive Course: II Semester)
The course offers an introduction to the main discoveries of physical cosmology and to the main themes of the actual research in this field, given according to an historical perspective and according to a qualitative approach, suitable for students of philosophy and theology. Some philosophical consequences of the cosmology studies for our comprehension of the physical world, are thus one of the other topics of these lectures.
50566
PROF. RODOLFO GUZZI, University of Bologna. Head of the Earth Observation Unit, ASI, Italian Space Agency, Italy:
" Elements of Physics I (Elementi di Fisica Generale I)"
(Intensive Course: I Semester, December 9th-17th, 2004. See Calendar)
First Part of a Two-Year Course.
Introduction to the Course. The relation of Physics to other Sciences. The Physics before the 1920. Relativity. Quantum physics. Motion and related laws.
Newton’s law of dynamics. Conservation of momentum. Work and potential energy. The energy and its forms. Gravitational. Kinetics energy. Other forms.
The harmonic oscillator. The center of mass and the moment of inertia. Rotation in space. The energy of an oscillator.
Optics and the principle of Fermat. Light. The principle of least time. Geometrical optics. Electromagnetism. Electromagnetic field. Gauss and the application of his law. The electromagnetic field in various circumstances. The Maxwell’s equation. The potential on the wave equation.
Thermodynamics. The kinetics theory of gases. The principle of mechanical statistics.
The laws of thermodynamics.
Lecture notes of the course are downloadable from the lecture notes page of this site.
50546
PROF. SERGIO GALVAN (Catholic University, Milan):
"Elements of intensional logic (Introduzione alle logiche intensionali)"
(Intensive Course: I Semester, January 11-19, 2005. See Calendar)
The course gives an introductory overview of a particular branch of formal logic: the so-called "intensional logic", as a collection of modal logic models. These models are coming into prominence in the contemporary cultural scenery. In fact, they allow a limited but highly flexible symbolic formalization of the "contentual languages" of the humanistic disciplines, philosophy and theology included, in their treatment of specific problems (ontological, epistemological, ethical, legal, etc.). This formalization of the humanistic disciplines allows a more rigorous and well-founded confrontation with the scientific disciplines and their mathematical "extensional" formalism, on all the classical topics of the interdisciplinary dialogue among them.
Moreover, in the actual, ever more global culture, where different educations, traditions, and sensibilities are contrasted — which neither communicated, nor understood if not fought each other over the centuries and the millennia — an adequate formalization of such different approaches to the same problems becomes essential. These different approaches to the same legal, ethical, ontological and religious problems lead indeed the existence of individuals and societies. A comparison based on different but definite because axiomatic principles, can emphasize the common features, without negating or hiding the differences. On this basis, an agreement also minimal on specific and well defined topics, becomes always possible wherever it is feasible.
This course is promoted and supported within the STOQ Project. The attendance at this course is strongly recommended also as propaedeutic to Professor Cocchiarella's course on formal ontology.
The course is given in Italian.
Bibliography:
S. GALVAN: Logiche intensionali. Sistemi proposizionali di logica modale, deontica, epistemica, Franco Angeli, Milano, 1991 (exp. ch. 2, pp. 71-119)
Other texts useful for the course are downloadable from the lecture notes page of this site.
55142
PROF. PIETRO GIUSTINI (Pontifical Lateran University)
«Elements of Calculus I (Istituzioni di Matematica I)»
(Intensive Seminar: I Semester, January 18-21, 2005)
First Part of a Two-Year Course. The course is an introduction to modern calculus for students of philosophy and theology. This introduction is inserted in the historical context of the modern calculus that has its roots in the Greek mathematics. Finally, the students will also introduced to the modern set theoretical foundations of calculus.
Faculty of Theology
STOQ Courses 2004/5
1. fundamental course
10111 A and B
PROF. PIERO CODA, Pontifical Lateran University.
Course (I-II Semester): «Trinitary Theology (Monotheism and Trinity. II). A) First Part: Method and Biblical Perspective; B) Second Part: Historical-Systematic Perspective »
Second Part of a Two-Year Course. The course, lasting two Semesters, deepens the relationships
between the religious assert about the existence of one only God,
and the Christian assert about the existence of “One God in
Three Persons”. Particular attention is given to the epistemological and the historical foundations of the biblical basis of the Trinity theology, studied in relationship with the systematic development of the theological reflection, on Trinity during the history of the Christianism.
2. intensive courses
Further information on the Seminars scheduled for the Second Semester by:
Prof. PHILIP CLAYTON (Harvard University, USA)
Rev. Prof. JOHN POLKINGHORNE (Cambridge University, UK)
will be given in the next weeks.
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