Prof Roman Frigg

This course is available on the BSc in Business Mathematics and Statistics, BSc in Philosophy and Economics, BSc in Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method, BSc in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, BSc in Politics and Philosophy and BSc in Statistics with Finance. This course is available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit and to General Course students.

None.

Science is chock full of miraculous predictions, shocking revolutions, and unexpected results that few science fiction writers could have ever dreamed of. What makes science so special? This course is a tour of the philosophical underpinnings of modern science. No background in any science is needed for this course; everything you need to know will be covered.

The issues we will tackle are the following. Theory and Observation: Hume’s problem of induction and Goodman’s new riddle of induction, Popper’s falsificationism, underdetermination of theory by evidence, the positive instance account, Bayesianism. Theories and laws: the received view of theories, the semantic view of theories, the regularity view of laws, law idealism, laws as universals, the best systems account, instrumentalism. Explanation: the DN model of explanation, statistical explanation, causal explanation, unification. Intertheory relations: reductionism and pluralism. Realism versus Antirealism: Scientific realism and the no miracles argument, inference to the best explanation, antirealism and the pessimistic meta-induction, reductive empiricism, constructive empiricism, the natural ontological attitude, entity realism, structural realism, Kuhn and scientific revolutions. Sociological approaches to science: Social constructivism, feminism. Causation: Hume’s, Mill’s, Mackie’s accounts of causation, counterfactual theories, probabilistic causality and manipulability accounts, transference accounts.  Philosophy of a special science: Space and Time in Newton’s physics.

10 hours of lectures and 10 hours of classes in the MT. 10 hours of lectures and 10 hours of classes in the LT.

Students will be expected to write 2 formative essays per term, submit a few short answer questions before each class/seminar, and participate in class discussion.

P Godfrey-Smith: Theory and Reality: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Science. C Hitchcock (editor): Contemporary Debates in Philosophy of Science.

Exam (100%, duration: 3 hours) in the main exam period.