Course Identification

The course deals with fundamental questions in philosophy of science. We will examine how the philosophy of science has reformulated basic questions and debates in Western philosophy, and how it has addressed them using the means at its disposal. Among the questions we will discuss are: Is there scientific rationality, and how is it to be conceptualized? What does it mean that science is a social enterprise? As time progresses, does science approximate the truth, at least in some cases? What are the ways in which science represents the world? The course readings will mostly consist of classical and contemporary sources. Below pleasse find the course plan and assigned readings

Introduction and Course Overview

Logical Empiricism

• Brown, James R. 2001. Who Rules in Science: An Opinionated to the Wars, pp. 47-58. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.
• Ayer, A. J. 1946/1971. Language, Truth and Logic, 2^nd ed. Ch. 1: The Elimination of Metaphysics, 45?61; Ch. 4: The A Priori, 96-115. London: Penguin.

The Problem of Induction

• Hume, David. 1748. An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding.  Section IV: Sceptical Doubts Concerning the Operations of the Understanding; Section V. Sceptical Solution of these Doubts. http://‌www.gutenberg.org/files/9662/9662-h/9662-h.htm#section4

Popper’s Critical Rationalism

• Popper, Karl R. 1963. Science: Conjectures and Refutations. In Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge, 33-58. London: Routledge.

Underdetermination of Theory by Evidence

• Lakatos, Imre. 1968-1969. Criticism and the Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 69: 149-186.

Thomas Kuhn’s Structure of Scientific Revolutions

• Kuhn, Thomas S. 1970. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 2^nd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Kuhn on the Rationality of Science

• Anonymous. 1997. You Can’t Follow the Science Wars Without a Battle Map. The Economist (Dec 11).  http://www.economist.com/node/109188
• Kuhn, Thomas S. 1977. Objectivity, Value Judgment, and Theory Choice. In The Essential Tension: Selected Studies in Scientific Tradition and Change, 102?118. Chicago: University of Chicago Press

Feminist Criticism of Science

• Martin, Emily. 1991. The Egg and the Sperm: How Science Has Constructed a Romance Based on Stereotypical Male-Female Roles. Signs 16(3): 485-501.
• Okruhlik, Kathleen. 1998. Gender and the Biological Sciences, in Philosophy of Science: The Central Issues, edited by M. Curd and J. A. Cover, 192-207. New York: Norton.

Critical Contextual Empiricism

• Longino, Helen. 1992. Essential Tensions – Phase Two: Feminist, Philosophical, and Social Studies of Science. In ‎The Social Dimensions of Science, ed. Ernan McMullin, 198?216. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.
• Goldman, Alvin I. 2002. Knowledge and Social Norms. Science 296 (June 21): 2148-2149.

Science, Social Values, and the Argument from Inductive Risk

• Douglas, Heather. 2000. Inductive Risk and Values in Science. Philosophy of Science 67(4): 559-579.

Scientific Realism: Does Science Tell the Truth?

• Psillos, Sthathis. 2006. Scientific Realism. In Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2^nd ed., Vol. 8, ed. D. M. Borchert, 688-694. Detroit: Macmillan.

The Pessimistic Induction on Past Scientific Failures

• Lehoux, Daryn. 2012. What Did the Romans Know? Ch. 6: The Trouble with Taxa, 133-154; Ch. 9: Of Miracles and Mistaken Theories, 200-223. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Structural Realism

• Ladyman, James. 2011. Structural Realism versus Standard Scientific Realism: The Case of Phlogiston and Dephlogisticated Air. Synthese 180(2): 87-101

Requirements