Back to course documents.
| Week | Date | Topic/Reading Event | Presented by |
| 1 | Aug. 27 | Introduction to the seminar | Norton |
| Does Fine-tuning require a fine-tuner? | |||
| 1 | Aug. 27 | Robin Collins, "The Fine-Tuning Argument: A Scientific Argument for the Existence of God." Victor J. Stenger, "Is the Universe Fine Tuned for Us?" in Young, Matt; Edis, Taner, Why Intelligent Design Fails: A Scientific Critique of the New Creationism, Rutgers University Press, pp. 172-184 |
Norton |
| 2 | Sep. 3 | Warm up exercise due before class. | |
| 2 | Sep. 3 | Discussion: Does Fine-tuning require a fine-tuner? | All |
| The Structure of Theories | |||
| 2 | Sep. 3 | Carl G. Hempel, "Empirical Criteria of Cognitive Significance:
Problems and Changes," Ch. 4 in Aspects of Scientific Explanation and Other Essays in the Philosophy of Science. New York: Macmillan, 1965 |
Norton notes |
| 3 | Sep. 10 | Bas C. Van Fraasen, "To Save the Phenomena," Ch. 3 in The Scientific Image. Oxford: Clarendon, 1980. |
Zina Ward |
| Analogical Models | |||
| 3 | Sep. 10 | Ludwig Boltzman, "Model," Encyclopedia Britannica, 1911. Transcribed version. | Josh Fry |
| 3 | Sep. 10 | Ron Giere, "How Models are used to Represent Reality," Philosophy of Science, 71 (2004) pp. 742–752. | Aydin Mohseni |
| Idealizations | |||
| 4 | Sep. 17 | Ernan McMullin, "Galilean Idealization," Studies in History and Philosophy of Science,16 (1985),pp. 247-273. | Shahin Kaveh |
| 4 | Sep. 17 | Michael Weisberg, “Three Kinds of Idealization,” The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 104, No. 12 (Dec.), 639-659. | Aydin Mohseni |
| Representation | |||
| 4 | Sep. 17 | Partial isomorphism. Steven French (2003), "A Model-Theoretic Account of Representation (Or, I Don't Know Much About Art ... But I Know It Involves Isomorphism)," Philosophy of Science, 70 (5), pp. 1472 - 1483. |
Siska De Baerdemaeker |
| 5 | Sep.24 | Inferential account. Suárez, Mauricio (2004). "An Inferential Conception of Scientific Representation," Philosophy of Science, 71, pp. 767–779. |
Leo Mollica |
| 5 | Sep. 24 | Denotational account. Callender, Craig and Jonathan Cohen (2006). "There is No Problem of Scientific Representation," Theoria 55, pp. 67–85. |
Shahin Kaveh |
| Inductive Inference | |||
| 5 | Sep. 24 | John D. Norton, "A Little
Survey of Induction," in P. Achinstein, ed., Scientific Evidence: Philosophical Theories and Applications. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005. pp. 9-34. |
Norton |
| 6 | Oct. 1 | John D. Norton, "Hempel's Satisfaction Criterion of Confirmation" pp.66-82 in A Survey of Inductive Generalization Manuscript. | Norton |
| 6 | Oct. 1 | Peter Lipton, "Inference to the Best Explanation," in W.H. Newton-Smith (ed) A Companion to the Philosophy of Science, Blackwell, 2000, pp. 184-193. | Josh Fry |
| Bayesian Confirmation Theory | |||
| 6 | Oct. 1 | Joyce, James, "Bayes' Theorem", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy | Aydin Mohseni |
| 7 | Oct. 8 | Colin Howson and Peter Urbach, "Bayesian vs Non-Bayesian Approaches to Confirmation," Reprinted from Ch. 7 of Scientific Reasoning: The Bayesian Approach. |
Josh Fry |
| Falsificationism and the Demarcation of Science. | |||
| 7 | Tues. Oct. 8 | Wesley Salmon, "Rational Prediction," British Journal for the
Philosophy of Science, 32 (1981), pp. 115-25. Background: Karl Popper, "Science: Conjectures and Refutations" Sections I-III only, pp. 33-41 in Conjectures and Refutations. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1963. |
Siska De Baerdemaeker |
| 7 | Tues. Oct. 8 | Larry Laudan, "The Demise of the Demarcation Problem," in Physics, philosophy, and psychoanalysis: essays in honor of Adolf Grünbaum. Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science. 76, Dordrecht: D. Reidel, 1983, pp. 111–127. | Aeyaz Kayani |
| Problems of Induction | |||
| 8 | Oct. 15 | N. Goodman, "The New Riddle of Induction," Ch. III in Fact, Fiction and Forecast. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1983. (Background: John D. Norton, "The Formal Equivalence of Grue and Green and How It Undoes the New Riddle of Induction." Synthese, (2006) 150: 185-207.) |
Aeyaz Kayani |
| 8 | Oct. 15 | John D. Norton, "Must Evidence Underdetermine Theories?" in The Challenge of the Social and the Pressure of Practice: Science and Values Revisited, M. Carrier, D. Howard and J. Kourany, eds., Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2008, pp. 17-44. Read. |
Norton |
| Explanation | |||
| 8 | Oct. 15 | DN, DS, IS and SR models of explanation. Wesley C. Salmon,"Scientific Explanation," pp. 7-41 of Ch. 1 in in Introduction to the Philosophy of Science. M. Salmon (Ed.), Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. |
Kasey Genin |
| 9 | Oct. 22 | Paul W. Humphreys, "Scientific Explanation: The Causes, Some of the Causes, and Nothing But the Causes" in P. Kitcher and W. C. Salmlon, eds., Scientific Explanation: Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science, Vol. XIII. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1989., | Zena Ward |
| 9 | Oct. 22 | Philip Kitcher, "Explanation as Unificiation," Section 4 (pp. 430-48) of "Explanatory Unification and the Causal Structure of the World," in P. Kitcher and W. C. Salmlon, eds., Scientific Explanation: Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science, Vol. XIII. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1989. | Leo Mollica |
| Realism and AntiRealism | |||
| 9 | Oct. 22 | Bas C. Van Frassen, "Arguments Concerning Scientific Realism," Ch. 2, pp. 7-40 in The Scientific Image. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980. |
Aeyaz Kayani |
| 10 | Oct. 29 | Larry Laudan, "A Confutation of Convergent Realism," Philosophy of Science, 48, (1981), pp. 19-49. |
Shahin Kaveh |
| 10 | Oct. 29 | Steven French, “Structure as a Weapon of the Realist.” Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 106 (2006), pp.1–19. | YOUR NAME HERE |
| Causation | |||
| 10 | Oct. 29 | David Lewis, "Causation," Journal of Philosophy, 70(1973) pp. 556–567. | Siska De Baerdemaeker |
| 11 | Nov. 5 | James Woodward, “Causation with a Human Face” in Price, H. and Corry, R. (eds.) Causation, Physics, and the Constitution of Reality: Russell's Republic Revisited. Oxford: Oxford University Press,2007, pp. 66–105. |
YOUR NAME HERE |
| Reduction and Emergence | |||
| 11 | Nov. 5 | Ernest Nagel, "Reduction of Theories," (Reduction: pp.336-366 only) Ch. 11 in The Structure of Science: Problems in the Logic of Scientific Explanation. New York: Harcour, Brace and World, 1962. |
Kasey Genin |
| 11 | Nov. 5 | J. A. Fodor, "Special Sciences (Or: The Disunity of Science as a
Working Hypothesis)," Synthese, 28 (1974), pp. 97-115. |
Leo Mollica |
| PSA 2014 Chicago Thurs. Nov. 6 - Sun Nov. 9 | |||
| 12 | Nov. 12 | Elliott Sober, "The Multiple Realizability Argument Against Reductionism," Philosophy of Science 66(1999), pp. 542-564. | Aydin Mohseni |
| 12 | Nov. 12 | Robert Batterman, 2000, "Multiple Realization and Universality" British Journal for the Philosophy of Science. 51, pp. 115-145. | Siska De Baerdemaeker |
| 12 | Nov. 12 | Paul Humphreys, "Computational and Conceptual Emergence," Philosophy of Science, 75 (2008), pp. 584-594. |
Aeyaz Kayani |
| Experiment | |||
| 13 | Nov. 19 | Allan Franklin, "Experiment
in Physics", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy This is a long article. Concentrate on Section 1. Experimental Results, which includes a positive epistemology of experiment. |
Shahin Kaveh |
| 13 | Nov. 19 | Wendy Parker, "Does Matter Really Matter? Computer Simulations, Experiments, and Materiality" Synthese, 169 (2009) pp. 483-496. |
Zina Ward |
| 13 | Nov. 19 | John D. Norton, "Replicability of Experiment" Draft book chapter. | Norton |
| Nov. 26 | Thanksgiving Recess. | ||
| Values in Science | |||
| 14 | Dec. 3 | Thomas S. Kuhn "Objectivity, Value Judgment, and Theory Choice," Ch. 13, pp. 320-339 in The Essential Tension. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1977. |
Gong Wang |
| 14 | Dec. 3 | Heather Douglas, “The Value of Cognitive Values,” Philosophy of Science (2013), vol. 80, pp. 796-806. |
Zina Ward |
| Dec. 10 | Comprehensive Exam (HPS PhD Program only) |