Schedule
tuesday 12.2 course introduction
thursday 12.4 the demarcation problem
A. J. Ayer, from Language, Truth, and Logic, 1952 (Handout; or here, but just read as far as the paragraph containing footnote 6) and Karl Popper, from Conjectures and Refutations, 1963 (MyCourses).
tuesday 12.9 project planning session
Prepare by picking some possible topics.
thursday 12.11
Susan Haack, “Trial and error: The Supreme Court’s philosophy of science,” American Journal of Public Health, 2005. Also, project plan is due
tuesday 12.16 scientific theories: change and progress
Thomas S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Chs. 1 – 4
thursday 12.18
Kuhn, SSR, Chs. 5 – 8
tuesday 1.6
more on Kuhn, SSR, Chs. 1-8
thursday 1.8
Kuhn, SSR, Chs. 9-12
tuesday 1.13
Kuhn, SSR, Chs. 13 and Postscript
thursday 1.15 midterm exam
tuesday 1.20
Elisabeth A. Lloyd, “Feyerabend, Mill, and pluralism,” Philosophy of Science, 1997 (MyCourses).
thursday 1.22 causation and induction
OPTIONAL: David Hume, Section 4, Part 1 from An Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding, 1748 (info on text)
REQUIRED: Pierre Duhem, from The Aim and Structure of Physical Theory, 1906 (Library reserve).
tuesday 1.27 unity of science and pluralism in science
Frank Oppenheim and Hilary Putnam, “Unity of science as a working hypothesis,” Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science, 1958. (Library reserve)
thursday 1.29
Nancy Cartwright, “Fundamentalism vs. the patchwork of laws,” Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 1994 (Library reserve).
tuesday 2.3
John Dupré, from The Disorder of Things, 1993 (Library reserve) and George Reisch, “Pluralism, logical empiricism, and the problem of pseudoscience,” Philosophy of Science, 1998 (MyCourses).
thursday 2.5 national global warming teach-in
Wendy Parker, “Understanding Pluralism in Climate Modeling,” Foundations of Science. 2006. Download from MyCourses
tuesday 2.10 objectivity and values
Lorraine Daston, “Objectivity and the escape from perspective,” Social Studies of Science, 1992 (Library reserve).
thursday 2.12
Thomas Kuhn, “Objectivity, value judgment, and theory choice,” in The Essential Tension, 1977 (Library reserve).
tuesday 2.17
Helen Longino, “Essential tensions, phase II: Feminist, philosophical, and social studies of science,” in The Social Dimensions of Science, 1992 (Library reserve).
thursday 2.19
John Dupré, “Fact and value,” in Value-Free Science?: Ideals and Illusions, 2007 (Library reserve).
last day to turn in discussion paper
thursday 2.26, 12:30 final exam
Is there any schedule posted for student presentations? If not, mayhaps they could be included in this schedule. A little preemptive research could add an edge to our discussions.
Click on the “Course Materials” tab and then you’ll see a link to the presentation schedule page.
Can we use Dupre’s Disunity of Science on the final?