PHIL 209
Philosophy of Science
Last Offered Fall 2013
Division II
This course is not offered in the current catalog

Class Details

It is a generally held belief, in our time and culture, that science is the best source of our knowledge of the world, and of ourselves. The aim of this course is to examine the origins, grounds, and nature of this belief. We will analyze and discuss various accounts of scientific method, structure and justification of scientific theories, scientific choice, change, and the idea that scientific knowledge is progressive. The course will begin with the “received view” of science, advanced by logical empiricists, which assumes the objectivity and the rationality of science. We will then discuss philosophies of science which emerged out of various criticisms of this view – especially those of Popper, Lakatos, Kuhn and Feyerabend – and the challenges to the assumptions of scientific objectivity and rationality their works provoked. This discussion will naturally lead us to the relativist and social-constructivist views developed within contemporary science studies. Finally, we will analyze the current debate about cognitive credentials of science and proper approach to the study of science, which came to be known as “the science wars.”
The Class: Format: seminar with a short lecture component in each class
Limit: 19
Expected: 10-15
Class#: 1393
Grading: OPG
Requirements/Evaluation: class attendance, preparedness and participation; three short assignments; three 5 pages long papers, the last of which will be the final paper, due a week after the end of classes
Extra Info: may not be taken on a pass/fail basis
Prerequisites: one PHIL course, or declared major in a natural science, or consent of the instructor
Enrollment Preferences: Philosophy majors and prospective majors
Distributions: Division II
Attributes: COGS Related Courses
HSCI Interdepartmental Electives
PHIL Contemp Metaphysics + Epistemology Courses
SCST Elective Courses

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