LFU:online

Department of Experimental Physics Department of Experimental Physics

Priv.-Doz. Michael Brownnutt, PhD Priv.-Doz. Michael Brownnutt, PhD

704907

Epistemology: How we know what we know

SV 2

5

weekly

every 2nd year

English

• Understanding that philosophy of science goes beyond the baconian method. • Understand that meta-questions exist. • Practice formulating reasoned arguments, beyond reciting facts. The aim of the course is not to pack information into the students’ heads, but to get the students to engage with – understand, digest, and possibly object to - the ideas presented.

Review of some of the critical points - Francis Bacon: The baconian (or scientific) method, Karl Popper: Falsificatonism, Willard Van Orman Quine: Ontological relativism, Thomas Kuhn: Paradigm shifts, Imre Lakatos: Research programmes, Paul Feyerabend: It is what it is. The importance of Weltanschauung - Foundationalism / Coherentism, Reductionism / Holism, Realism / Anti-realism. Practical import for science – What does science do? What should science do? What can science do?

Lecture: One hour per week. Discussion: One hour per week. Reading: Students will be expected to read additional material outside the contact hours stated.

Three short essays (1000 words each). One oral exam.

• Feyerabend, P. (2010) Against Method. 4th ed. New York, NY: Verso Books. • Kuhn, Thomas S. (1996). The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. 3rd ed. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. • Lakatos, I. (1980). Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes: Philosophical Papers: v. 1. John Worrall and Gregory Currie (Eds.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. • Murphy, N. (1997). Anglo-American Postmodernity: Philosophical Perspectives on Science, Religion and Ethics. Oxford: Westview Press. • Popper, K. (2002). The Logic of Scientific Discovery, 2nd ed. London: Routeledge. • Popper, K. (2002). Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge, 2nd ed. London: Routeledge • Quine, Willard van Orman. (1963). From a Logical Point of View. New York, NY: Harper & Row.

By the end of the course all students should be able to discuss the following link, with reference to Bacon, Popper, Quine, Kuhn, Lakatos and Feyerabend:

04.03.2013

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