Philosophy of Modern Science-E2
| Numbering Code | U-LAS00 10022 LE34 | Year/Term | 2022 ・ Second semester |
|---|---|---|---|
| Number of Credits | 2 | Course Type | Lecture |
| Target Year | All students | Target Student | For all majors |
| Language | English | Day/Period | Tue.3 |
| Instructor name | D'SOUZA, Rohan Ignatious (Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies Professor) | ||
| Outline and Purpose of the Course | This course will introduce students to a growing sub-field termed as the philosophy of science. The central question that will be discussed concerns the lively debates over how science and scientific activity have been sought to be defined . Given the introductory nature of the course, the effort will be to first guide students towards understanding some of the basic philosophical discussions on induction and deduction and realism and anti-realism. Following which, we will survey the conceptual terrain from logical positivism, falsification, paradigm science and methodological anarchism. | ||
| Course Goals | The effort in this course is to help students understand how a focus on definitions can often be philosophically intractable and defy easy conceptualisation. The philosophy of modern science, moreover, will enable students to reflect on how the definitional boundaries between objectivity and subjectivity are fraught. Science, hence, is also open to sociological questioning and is becomes an important domain for enquiry in the social sciences. | ||
| Schedule and Contents |
Each class will comprise a 90 minute session; involving a lecture of 60 minutes and followed by a 30 minute interactive discussion in which student participation will also be elicited through either group or individual presentations. Four themes will be covered in this class and each theme will be covered in three to four weeks.（Total:14 classes and one feedback） a)Induction and deduction; realism and anti-realism; objectivity and subjectivity b)Logical Positivism and Karl Popper’s ‘Problem of Demarcation’ c)Thomas Kuhn’s notion of ‘normal Science’ and the ‘paradigm shift’ d)Paul Feyerabend and the notion of being ‘Against Method’ |
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| Evaluation Methods and Policy |
There will be a regular cycle of written submissions and feedback through class discussions and The idea is to develop a credible capacity for reading and writing amongst those who take up the course. Evaluations will be based on two tutorial assignment, with 50% grade for each. |
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| Course Requirements | None | ||
| Study outside of Class (preparation and review) | Students will be expected to have read at least five pages of pre-assigned reading, at the very minimum, before attending each class. | ||
| References, etc. |
Philosophy of Science in the 20th Century, Donald Gillies, (Blackwell), ISBN:978-0631183587 Karl Popper, Anthony O’ Hear, (Routledge), ISBN:978-0415084802 The Essential Tension, Thomas Kuhn, (University of Chicago Press), ISBN:978-0226458069 Thomas Kuhn, Alexander Bird, (Princeton University Press) World Changes, Paul Horwich (ed.), (MIT Press), ISBN:978-0262581387 Killing Time: The Autobiography of Paul Feyerabend, Paul Feyerabend, (University of Chicago Press), ISBN:978-0226245324 Against Method, Paul Feyerabend, (Verso; 4th edition ), ISBN:978-1844674428 Criticism and the History of Science: Kuhn's, Lakatos's and Feyerabend's Criticisms of Critical Rationalism, G. Andersson, (Leiden: Brill) Images of Science, C. Hooker and P. Churchland (ed.), (University of Chicago Press), ISBN:978-0226106540 Scientific Realism, Jarrett Leplin (ed.), (University of California Press), ISBN:978-0520051553 |
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