PHIL 240 - PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE

Spring 2010

TR 11:30-12:45

Welles 131

INSTRUCTOR

Theodore Everett

office: Wadsworth 9B

telephone: (office) 245-5198; (home) 243-3433

e-mail: everett@geneseo.edu

office hours: 10:00-12:00 W (and by appt.)

PURPOSE OF THE COURSE

What is the nature of science? What is the difference between scientific theories and non-scientific ones? What is the difference between good scientific theories and bad ones? Is there a special kind of reasoning in science? Does science provide a greater claim to certainty than other forms of inquiry? What, if any, are the limits of scientific knowledge? We will consider such questions both naively and in relation to a variety of philosophical theories of science that have been developed over the past century or so. In the first part of the course, we will cover the history of the philosophy of science from the early Greeks to the Logical Empiricists of the mid-Twentieth Century. In the second and longest part of the course, we will examine a series of issues in contemporary philosophy of science, including objectivity, induction, rationality, and realism. In the final section of the course, we will look philosophically at some current public issues involving science in relation to religion, race, gender, peace, and the environment.

TEXTS

Curd and Cover, eds. Philosophy of Science: the Central Issues (Norton). Supplemental readings will be placed on myCourses.

PREREQUISITE

One course in either natural science or philosophy, or consent of instructor.

REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING

There will be two exams in this course, and one short (5 page) paper. The exams and paper will each count for 30% of your course grade. Class participation and improvement will account for the remaining 10%. Perfect attendance is strongly encouraged. If you need to miss class, please let me know in advance. It is also important for the whole class to keep up with the readings, so that our discussions can be maximally useful.

PLAGIARISM

All work for this course must be entirely your own. Any plagiarism will result in a grade of E for the course. See the college academic honesty policy for definitions and details, at

http://www.geneseo.edu/~bulletin/addpolicies.shtml#student_academic

COURSE SCHEDULE (All dates for specific topics are tentative!)

Historical introduction

1/19 Ancient and medieval views of science

1/21 Rationalism

1/26 Empiricism

1/28 20^th Century Logical Empiricism

2/2 Problems with Logical Empiricism.

What is science?

2/4 Falsifiable theories. Popper; Kuhn, C&C 1-19

2/9 Research programs. Lakatos; Thagard, C&C 20-37

2/11 Paradigms. Kuhn, C&C, 83-101

Objectivity in science

2/16 There isn’t any. Kuhn, C&C 102-118

2/18 Yes, there is. McMullin, C&C 119-138

Underdetermination

2/23 Duhem’s Thesis. Duhem, C&C 257-279

2/25 Holism. Quine, C&C 280-301

Induction

3/2 The problem of induction. Lipton; Popper, C&C, 409-432

3/4 Confirmation and corroboration. Salmon; Hempel, C&C, 433-459

3/9 Observation and induction. Everett (myCourses)

3/11 EXAM 1

3/16-3/18 SPRING BREAK

Prediction and explanation

3/23 Against the historical thesis. Snyder, C&C 460-480

3/25 For the historical thesis. Achinstein, C&C 481-493

Probability and rationality

3/30 For Bayesianism. Salmon. C&C, 551-583

4/1 Against Bayesianism. Glymour. C&C, 584-606

Empiricism and scientific realism

4/6 Constructive Empiricism. Van Frassen. C&C 1064-1087

4/8 A realist response. Musgrave. C&C 1088-1113

Religion, politics, and science

4/13 Religion and science. Dawkins; Everett (myCourses)

4/15 Education and creationism. Ruse; Laudan, C&C 38-61

4/20 GREAT DAY

4/22 Race and intelligence. Murray and Herrnstein; Gould (myCourses)

4/27 Gender and science. Okruhlik. C&C 192-209

4/29 Global Warming. IPCC; BM Everett (myCourses)

5/4 EXAM 2

Final Meeting: Wednesday, 5/12, 8:00-11:00am