Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and Physics

With this joint major, the Physics and Philosophy departments enable students to explore the rich relationship between theoretical physics and the philosophy of science, including fundamental questions about the nature of space, time, and matter. The course requirements are designed to prepare students for further research into the conceptual and philosophical foundations of modern physics. Students with this joint degree can go on to pursue graduate work in a number of fields, including physics, philosophy, history and philosophy of science, or science journalism.

Learning Outcomes
Students completing the program are expected to have:

Understanding of a brief history and current discussions of some fundamental questions in metaphysics (ontology and causality) and philosophy of science (realism and instrumentalism, theory change and theory assessment, reduction and emergence).
Familiarity with some of the basic questions in philosophy of physics and the approaches addressing them: nature of space time (absolute or relative, substantial or relational, static or dynamic) in relativity theories, and the substantival, relationist, and constructivist approaches to dealing with them, nature of probability and irreversibility in statistical mechanics, duality, measurement, and entanglement in quantum mechanics and the Copenhagen and the hidden variable approaches to these questions, locality, divergence, and renormalizability in quantum field theory, and the structural realist approach to handling them.

You will need to send original or certified copies of your home country's credentials as part of your application. TOEFL ibt - Students who are most competitive for admission will have a composite score of at least 90-100 and minimum scores of 20 in each section. IELTS - A total/overall score of 7 or higher will also satisfy BU's English Language proficiency requirement for all programs.