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Phil of Scie Course Outline

This document outlines a course on the philosophy of science. It describes the course objectives as enabling students to study the nature of scientific knowledge, investigate scientific reasoning and justification, appreciate philosophical questions in science, and distinguish genuine from pseudo-science. It provides an overview of topics to be covered in each chapter, including induction, falsification, scientific revolutions, realism vs antirealism, and criticisms of science.

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40 views4 pages

Phil of Scie Course Outline

This document outlines a course on the philosophy of science. It describes the course objectives as enabling students to study the nature of scientific knowledge, investigate scientific reasoning and justification, appreciate philosophical questions in science, and distinguish genuine from pseudo-science. It provides an overview of topics to be covered in each chapter, including induction, falsification, scientific revolutions, realism vs antirealism, and criticisms of science.

Uploaded by

eyukaleb4
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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UNIVERSITY OF GONDAR

COLLEGE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES & HUMANITIES

DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE AND GOVERNANCE


STUDIES
COURSE OUTLINE

Course Title: Philosophy of Science

Course Status: Compulsory

Course Credit: 3CHRs/5ECTS

Instructor’s Name: Solomon Ambaw

Email Address: [email protected]

Course Description

The course philosophy of science is a survey of philosophical issues surrounding the concepts
and practices of science in general and modern science in particular. Most of its contents overlap
with epistemology, metaphysics, and ontology. It tends to critically analyze, evaluate natures,
features, characters, and elements of scientific knowledge and practices. This course is also
where we connect philosophical views about science to the actual scientific practice in the
human society. The course covers the major areas of classical and contemporary philosophy of
science, including scientific reasoning, scientific progress, interpretations of scientific
knowledge, and the social organization of scientific practice. Its aim is not only to familiarize
students with philosophical issues about science and scientific discourses but also to equip them
to critically and normatively interpret and reflect on scientific theories and practices.

Specifically this course will examine a number of philosophical issues about science such as:
(1) Demarcation. What distinguishes science from non-science, and real from bogus science? Is
Creation Science? (2) Explanation. What is it to explain something? Does explanation require
universal laws? Does it depend on context? (3) Validation. How are scientific theories validated
or confirmed? Is validation a simple matter of gathering inductive support? Of making
predictions that are borne out by the evidence? Of trying but failing to falsify a theory? Or does it
also depend on "pragmatic" matters such as the simplicity, elegance, or scope of the theory?

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(3) Values and Objectivity. Is science necessarily value-laden? To what extent does the intrusion
of the values of the scientist diminish or make impossible objectivity in science? (4) Realism. Do
highly theoretical entities really exist, or are they just fictions or useful tools for making
predictions? Does science discover the truth about the real world, or create a world of its own?
(5) Limits. Is science the only reliable method for finding out about the world? Are there any
truths which are simply inaccessible to scientific method? (If so, is there any other method to
which they are accessible?) (6) Philosophy and Particular Sciences. Depending on the interests
and specialties of class members, we may also explore the philosophical implications of
particular scientific results, e.g. the implications of sociobiology for ethics or of quantum physics

Course objectives and competence to be acquired

The purpose of this course is;

 To enable students study and understand the nature of scientific knowledge and how it emerged
from certain philosophical paradigms.

 To enable students investigate the fundamentals of scientific reasoning, discovery and


justification.

 To enable students appreciate the deep philosophical questions that underlie science
 To enable students to articulate the method of science

 To enable students use philosophical approach to distinguish between genuine and pseudo- or
“junk” science

COURSE CONTENT

CHAPTER ONE: WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE?

 What is Philosophy?

 What is Science?

 The relationship between philosophy and science

 What is Philosophy of Science?

 Historical Developments of Western Science

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CHAPTER TWO: INDUCTION AND DUCTIONISM

 What is Scientific Method?

 Deduction and Induction

 David Hume’s Problem of Induction

 Inference to the Best Explanation (IBE)

 Induction and Probability

CHAPTER THREE: FALSIFICATION

 What is falsificationism?

 Falsificationism versus Inductionism

 Scientific reasoning in Falsificationism

 Science Versus Pseudo Science demarcation in falsificationism

 Context of Discovery and Context of justification

 Critics against falsificationism

CHAPTER FOUR: SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTIONS AND SCIENTIFIC RATIONALITY

4.1 Thomas Kuhn

 Paradigms and Normal Science

 Normal Science and anomalies

 Normal Science and Revolutionary Science

 Scientific revolution and its rationality?

 Theory and observation in science

 The theory of incommensurability

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 Relativism and the role of reason in science

4.2. Feyerabend

 Against the method

 Consistency and correspondence conditions in science

CHAPTER FIVE: REALISM AND ANTIREALSIM

 Scientific Realism
 Scientific Antirealism (Instrumentalism)
 The “no miracle argument”
CHAPTER SIX: SCIENCE AND ITS CRTICS

 Advantages of science

 Disadvantages of science

References
 A.J Ayer, “The Elimination of Metaphysics”
 Karl Popper, “Science: Conjectures and Refutations,”
 Karl Popper , “Darwinism as a Metaphysical Research Program”
 Don Gillies, Philosophy of Science in the Twentieth Century (Blackwells)
 Theodore Schick, Readings in the Philosophy of Science: From Positivism to Postmodernism
(McGraw-Hill, 1999)
 Thomas Kuhn, “Logic of Discovery or Psychology of Research”
 Thomas Kuhn, from The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
 Larry Laudan, “Science at the Bar—Causes for Concern”
 Michael Huemer, Skepticism and the Veil of Perception
 Rom Harre, Principles of Scientific Thinking
 George Reisch, “Pluralism, Logical Empiricism, and the Problem of Pseudoscience”
 Stephen Cole, “Voodoo Sociology: Recent Developments in the Sociology of Science”
 John Searle, from The Construction of Social Reality
 Tara Smith, “Social Objectivity and the Objectivity of Value”

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