Philosophy of Science Russell Marcus Proposed Syllabus
Required Text: Curd and Cover, Philosophy of Science: The Central Issues, Norton Plus Additional Readings, noted by * below.
Topics and Readings:
I. Science and Pseudoscience *Hume, Selections from the Enquiry Popper, “Science: Conjectures and Refutations” Kuhn, “Logic of Discovery or Psychology of Research?” Lakatos, “Science and Pseudoscience” Thagard, “Why Astrology is Pseudoscience” Ruse, “Creation-Science is Not Science”
II. The Duhem-Quine Thesis and Underdetermination Duhem, “Physical Theory and Experiment” Quine, “Two Dogmas of Empiricism” Gillies, “The Duhem Thesis and the Quine Thesis” Laudan, “Demystifying Underdetermination” *Sober, “Mathematics and Indispensability”
III. Induction, Prediction, and Evidence Lipton, “Induction” Popper, “The Problem of Induction” *Goodman, “The New Riddle of Induction” Salmon, “Rational Prediction” Hempel, “Criteria of Confirmation and Acceptability” Achinstein, “Explanation v Prediction: Which Carries More Weight?”
IV. Explanation Carnap, “The Value of Laws: Explanation and Prediction” Hempel, “Two Basic Types of Scientific Explanation” Hempel, “The Thesis of Structural Identity” Hempel, “Inductive-Statistical Explanation” Ruben, “Arguments, Laws, and Explanation” Railton, “A Deductive-Nomological Model of Probabilistic Explanation”
V. Laws of Nature Ayer, “What is a Law of Nature?” Dretske, “Laws of Nature” Mellor, “Necessities and Universals in Natural Laws” Cartwright, “Do the Laws of Physics State the Facts?”
VI. Intertheoretic Reduction Nagel, “Issues in the Logic of Reductive Explanations” Nickels, “How to be a Good Empiricist” Kitcher, “1953 and All That: A Tale of Two Sciences”
Course Requirements 1. All the readings listed above. 2. Attendance and participation. (10%) 3. Two short (4-6 page, 1000-1800 words) essays. (60%, 30% each) 4. Final Exam. (30%)