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Institut für Ionenphysik und Angewandte Physik Institut für Ionenphysik und Angewandte Physik

assoz. Prof. Milan Oncak, PhD assoz. Prof. Milan Oncak, PhD, +43 512 507 52696

744849

VU Kritisches Denken und metawissenschaftliche Aspekte in den Naturwissenschaften

VU 3

5

wöch.

jährlich

Englisch

-          Critical thinking (3-5 units): What it is, basic formal aspect (bad logic, bad argumentation, Schopenhauer’s “The Art of Being Right”), advanced aspects (truth X concealing facts X lying X bullshiting in technical sense according to Frankfurt; critical analysis as a mean of attacking even the frame of the question or the question itself; weak and strong critical thinking and outreach to morality – is there real-world critical thinking without a defined goal?).

-          Philosophy of science (2-3 units): Kuhn's paradigms, Popper's falsification criterion, Lakatos' research programs. Core truths and limits of the current discourse. A hard task of defining “bad science”.

-          Morality of science (3 units): Basic moral schemes (Kant, Aristotle’s virtue ethics, utilitarianism and Singer’s famous paper on ethics). Are scientists responsible for the consequences of their discoveries? Large scientific programs in a world with limited resources (e.g. CERN). Science in authoritarian/totalitarian countries (most notably the Soviet Union).

-          Sociology of science (4 units): Selection of topics to be investigated –(subjective) importance, popularity, career planning, continuation of a successful scientific program. Scientists as reviewers of science. Communication between scientists. Publication process and publication industry. Conference industry. Are there topics that must not be investigated, i.e. limits to freedom of speech (Chomsky’s defense of Holocaust denial vs. Popper’s paradox of tolerance)? Popular science vs. good science, science conformism. Role of authority in the scientific group and in a broader scientific field. Scientific communication.

-          Psychology of science (2-3 units): Motivation to work in science. External pressure and self-exploitation (Han’s The Burnout Society). Definition and borders of scientific fraud (many examples, e.g. Hendrik Schön and Victor Ninov). Proper citation praxis, copyright. Auto-censorship.

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