This document is written for graduate students who are considering writing a dissertation in philosophy of physics. I hope to give some pointers on how to get up to speed on the relevant background material. The suggested readings on this page are primarily "philosophical"; for mathematical background see Mathematics for Philosophers of Physics.
There are a number of different ways that one can "do" philosophy of physics. First, there are philosophers of physics such as David Albert and Tim Maudlin who go light on mathematical issues, and who put a lot of emphasis on the metaphysical implications of physics. Second, there are philosophers of physics such as David Malament who emphasize giving rigorous, mathematically valid proofs of philosophically significant claims. Third, there are philosophers of physics such as John Norton who tightly integrate conceptual issues with historical issues. But these main divisions are not sufficient to describe the richness of the field. For example, John Earman's work is highly technical, but is also centrally concerned with metaphysical and historical issues. (Oliver Pooley maintains a page of philosophy of physics homepages.)
A two-volume Handbook of Philosophy of Physics was published in 2007. These volumes are supposed to give a broad overview of the entire field. However, these volumes give a somewhat skewed view of the field, in that they are less dialectical than many of the journal articles, and they do not include articles by the more metaphysically oriented philosophers of physics (e.g. Albert and Maudlin).
Earman, John, World enough and space-time. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA (1989) ISBN: 0262050404
Torretti, Roberto, Relativity and geometry. Pergamon Press, Oxford (1983) ISBN: 0080267734
Malament, David B., "Classical general relativity", in Handbook of the Philosophy of Physics, ed Jeremy Butterfield and John Earman (Elsevier: 2007) ISBN: 0444515607
Sklar, Larry, Space, time, and spacetime. University of California Press (1977) ISBN: 0520031741
Norton, John, Philosophy of space and time, pp 179--231 in Introduction to the Philosophy of Science, ed Merilee Salmon et al. (Prentice-Hall; reprinted Hackett: 1992) ISBN: 0872204502
Friedman, Michael, Foundations of space-time theories. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ (1983) ISBN: 0691020396
Malament, David B., "Notes on the foundations of general relativity"
Albert, David Z., Quantum mechanics and experience. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA (1992) ISBN: 0674741129
Dickson, Michael, "Non-relativistic quantum mechanics", in Handbook of the Philosophy of Physics, ed Jeremy Butterfield and John Earman (Elsevier: 2007) ISBN: 0444515607
Redhead, Michael, Incompleteness, nonlocality, and realism. The Clarendon Press Oxford University Press, New York (1990) ISBN: 0198242387
Ruetsche, Laura, "Interpreting quantum theories" in The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Science.
Shimony, Abner, "Conceptual foundations of quantum mechanics", in The New Physics 373--95 (1989)
Clifton, Rob, "Introductory notes on the mathematics needed for quantum theory" (1996)
David Wallace's QM reading list
Cushing, J.T. and McMullin, E., Philosophical consequences of quantum theory. University of Notre Dame Press (1989) ISBN: 0268015791
Maudlin, Tim, Quantum non-locality and relativity: metaphysical intimations of modern physics. Blackwell (2002) ISBN: 0631232214
Malament, David B., "Notes on Bell's theorem"
Teller, Paul, An interpretive introduction to quantum field theory. Princeton University Press (1995) ISBN: NIL
Redhead, M.L.G., "Quantum field theory for philosophers", PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1982, 57--99 (1982)
Geroch, Robert, "Notes for special course on particle physics"
AQFT should not be considered a topic unto itself - rather, it is a set of tools that helps one to get a handle on the structure of quantum field theories. Most of the background necessary for AQFT is mathematical; in particular, one must devote oneself to learning "functional analysis", and more specifically, "operator algebras." But before you get to operator algebras, you should have a solid background in point-set topology and in abstract algebra (groups and rings). It would also help to have some advanced real analysis and linear algebra. AQFT is increasingly making use of category theory, and so it would not hurt to learn some of that as well.
There are several other "live" areas in philosophy of physics, including statistical mechanics, classical mechanics, and electrodynamics. But due to the author's lack of knowledge, these areas are omitted from this guide.
Another really great source on philosophy of physics are PhD dissertations (which are readily available, for a fee, via Dissertations Express). For example, for quantum field theory, you might look at the dissertations of Nick Huggett (Rutgers) or Aristides Arageorgis (Pittsburgh). For quantum information theory, you should get the dissertation of Chris Timpson (Oxford). For time and physics, Craig Callender's (Rutgers) dissertation is an invaluable source. For quantum gravity, you should get the dissertations of Gordon Belot (Pittsburgh) and Christian Wuthrich (Pittsburgh).
Of course, one should not hope to learn a field by reading encyclopedia articles. But you might use these to help you choose what literature to study.
quantum mechanics | space and time | statistical physics
This guide is not complete, even by the standards of my own knowledge. I wrote it very quickly one morning, just to give some advice to my students. Please do not hesitate to email me to remind me of further resources.