Dr Bryan Roberts

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 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.

Science is chock full of miraculous predictions, shocking revolutions, and utterly strange 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. Some of the questions we will tackle include: What is a scientific theory? What is the logical structure of confirmation by experiment? Are unobservable entities like quarks and gluons real? What are causes and effects? Does science undergo revolutions? More generally, our inquiry will cover the following kinds of questions:

1. metaphysical questions of what science is and is about;
2. methodological questions of how science works; and
3. some conceptual questions that arise in the context of the special sciences.

No background in any science is needed for this course; everything you need to know will be covered. In Michaelmas Term, our topics will include: the nature and definition of philosophy of science and of science (weeks 1-3); scientific realism (weeks 4-5); thought experiments and confirmation of theory by experiment (weeks 6-8); reduction and laws of nature (weeks 9-10). In Lent Term, we will turn to: how science represents and explains the world (weeks 11-12), the nature of causes and effects (weeks 13-14), scientific research programmes and revolutions (weeks 15-16), as well as some conceptual issues in the special sciences (biology, physics and the social sciences, weeks 17-20).

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.