Worlding the World: Myths from Ancient Greece to the Multiverse
CHUM 377
Fall 2010
| Section:
01
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| Crosslisting:
RELI 377, SISP 377 |
This course will focus on two questions that have thwarted and enthralled scientists, philosophers, and theologians for millennia: Where have we come from? and Where are we going? By reading ancient Greek and early Christian sources alongside contemporary astrophysicists, we will witness the reconfigured resurrection of some very old debates about the creation and unmaking of the world. Is the universe eternal, or was it created? Is it finite or infinite? Destructible or indestructible? Linear or cyclical? And is ours the only universe, or are there others?
The semester will be divided into four sections. The first will explore the dominant, or "inflationary" version of the big bang hypothesis in relation to the Christian doctrine of creation. The second will consider the possibility that the whole universe might be a negligible part of a vast "multiverse," in conversation with the early Greek atomists, who posited an extra-cosmic space teeming with other worlds. The third will explore contemporary cyclical cosmologies--that is, theories that posit a rebirth of the cosmos out of its fiery destruction--in relation to early Stoic philosophy and cross-cultural cyclic mythologies. The fourth will explore quantum cosmologies, in which the universe fragments into parallel branches each time a particle "decides" upon a position. We will examine these varied "cosmologies of multiplicity," not with a view toward adjudicating among them, but toward pointing out their mythic and ontological genealogies and consequences. |
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Essential Capabilities:
Logical Reasoning
This course delves into the particularities of cosmological argumentation and encourages students to find logical, ontological, and mythological connections between and among different accounts of creation.
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
SBS CHUM |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (CSCT)(RELI-MN)(RELI)(STS)(THEA) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: Not Available |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Michel Serres, GENESIS
Eliade, MYTH OF THE ETERNAL RETURN
Plato, TIMAEUS
Aristotle, DE CAELO
Edward Adams, GRAECO-ROMAN AND ANCIENT JEWISH COSMOLOGY
David E. Hahm, THE ORIGINS OF STOIC COSMOLOGY
Athanasius, CONTRA GENTES
Steven J. Dick, PLURALITY OF WORLDS: THE ORIGINS OF THE EXTRATERRESTRIAL LIFE DEBATE
Barbour, ISSUES IN SCIENCE AND RELIGION
FROM DEMOCRITUS TO KANT
Ian Barbour, ISSUES IN SCIENCE AND RELIGION
Alan Guth, INFLATIONARY UNIVERSE
Andrei Linde, THE SELF-REPRODUCING INFLATIONARY UNIVERSE
Max Tegmark, PARALLEL UNIVERSES
John Gribbin, IN SEARCH OF THE MULTIVERSE
Paul Steinhardt and Neil Turok, ENDLESS UNIVERSE
Diogenese Laertius, ZENO OF CITIUM
Brian Greene, THE ELEGANT UNIVERSE
Laura Mersini-Haughton, BIRTH OF THE UNIVERSE FROM THE MULTIVERSE
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Examinations and Assignments:
Weekly response papers, three critical papers |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
This course fulfills the Thematic Approach or Method and Theory requirement for the Religion major. |
| Instructor(s): Rubenstein,Mary-Jane Victoria Times: ...W... 01:10PM-04:00PM; Location: CFH106; |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 16 | | SR major: 3 | JR major: 3 | | |
| Seats Available: -2 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: 3 | JR non-major: 3 | SO: 4 | FR: X |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 9 | 1st Ranked: 5 | 2nd Ranked: 1 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 1 | Unranked: 2 |
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