Department of

O410 Einstein
Norton, John
M 1-1:50
Do astronauts age more slowly? Can a finite universe have no edge? Is time travel possible? Can time have a beginning? Does the moon change because a mouse looks at it? Surprisingly, modern science answers yes to all these questions. This course provides simple-to-understand explanations of these and other related questions, their broader philosophical significance and their histories. The course is suitable for students with no science background but with an interest in the world of modern science.

0515 / Hist 0089/13188 & 13836 Magic, Medicine and Science
Gyenis, Balazs
H 6-8:30

Palmieri, Paolo
M&W 11-11:50
This course is a partial survey of some important strands in the Western intellectual history. We will start with ancient Greek speculations in cosmology, philosophy, and medicine. Then we will look at some important subsequent developments in these areas and how they were influenced by the Greek tradition. These include, among other topics, the magical tradition that flourished during the Renaissance period. The latter half of the course will focus on the profound intellectual transformations in the 17th century which constitute what we often call The Scientific Revolution. The great scientific achievements of figures such as Descartes, Kepler, Galileo, and Newton will be discussed in detail. Overall, this course is meant to provide a broad picture of some of the most important elements in the Western intellectual tradition and their interactions in history.

0610 Causal Reasoning, web-based course
Andersen, Holly
H 6-8:30
Do school vouchers really help inner city students become better educated? Do gun control laws really make society safer? This course examines how scientists reason about causal claims like these. It considers use of scientific statistical data that informs our public policy debates. The course uses an interactive, web-based text and exams. In addition, there is an on-line virtual "Causality Lab" in which students will set up, run, and then analyze simulated experiments. They will construct causal theories, use the lab to derive predictions from these theories, and then test the predictions against the simulated data. While course materials are delivered on-line, students will still attend two sessions per week; one for addressing questions about the material and the second for case study analysis.

0611 Principles of Scientific Reasoning
Sytsma, Justin
M 6-8:30
The course will provide students with elementary logic skills and an understanding of scientific arguments. Ours is an increasingly scientific and technical society. In both our personal life decisions and in our work we are daily confronted by scientific results which influence what we do and how we do it. Basic skills in analyzing the structure of arguments in terms of truth and evidence are required to make this type of information accessible and useful. We hear, for example, that drinking alcoholic beverages reduces the chances of heart disease. We might well ask what sorts of tests were done to reach this conclusion and do the tests really justify the claim? We read that certain geographical configurations in South America "prove" that this planet was visited by aliens from outer space. Does this argument differ from other, accepted scientific arguments? This course is designed to aid the student in making sense of a variety of elementary logic skills in conjunction with the application of those skills to actual cases.

0612 Mind and Medicine
Machery, Edouard
M & W 12-12:50
Famous scientists such as Steven Pinker suggest that human behavior and human cognition should be explained on the basis of the theory of evolution. These views have been applied to a large range of human emotions, desires and actions from altruism and happiness to psychiatric diseases to health to taboos to rape. These claims have been echoed in the popular media. We have been told that humans are by nature violent and xenophobic, that men and women are by nature unfaithful, that men have evolved to be extremely jealous, that women have evolved to desire males with a high social-status, that there are some innate differences between men and women, and so on, and so forth. This course is designed as a critical introduction to the issues raised by these claims about evolution, psychology, and human nature. The impact on medicine and psychiatry of this evolutionary approach to the mind will also be discussed in detail. The goal of this class is to provide students with a critical understanding of the sensational claims made about human nature on the basis of the theory of evolution. Previous knowledge of biology and of psychology is not needed for this class. Key notions and theories in both fields will be introduced progressively. Prerequisites: There are no formal Prerequisites for this course. This course is part of a core sequence leading to certification in the Conceptual Foundations of Medicine Program, and is a companion course to HPS 0613 (Morality and Medicine) but may be taken independently. This course is of particular interest to pre-medical and pre-health care students. Recitations: One hour a week.

0623 Explanations of Humans and Society
Machamer, Peter
M & W 2-2:50
This course will look at some of the original writings of the three "giants" of modern psychology: Freud, Skinner and Piaget. The three movements of psychoanalysis, behaviorism and developmental cognition will be explored through their most articulate and well known proponents. Topics to be discussed include the nature of the emotions, the structures of behavior and the forms of human thought. Specifically, we will discuss how the concepts of desire, love, jealousy, homosexuality, skilled actions, language, and logical and moral reasoning can be used to understand human beings.

1530 / Hist 1153/12537 European Intellectual History
Hammond, Leslie
H 1-3:30
This course will explore topics in West European Intellectual History from 1850-1950. It will be conducted as a seminar centered upon student discussion. For this reason, students with be expected to read and engage the assigned sources before class. These sources will include readings in Marx, Mill, Durkheim, Mannheim, Freud and Existentialism. Some of our organizing questions will concern the nature of industrial and post-industrial society. We will ask about the possibility for social coherence in the modern world and we will explore the role of the intellectual. Student interests and concerns will determine other paths of enquiry. Course grades will be based on class participation, two papers, a midterm and a final.

1600 / Phil 1600/20339 Philosophy & the Rise of Modern Science
C
T & H 2:30-3:45
It is generally agreed that what happened in the 17th century changed the human landscape irrevocably. The Religious Reformation was consolidated; divinely ordained kingship was decisively uprooted; upheavals across Europe ushered in non-traditional political and constitutional formations; and the forces of transformation forged new sociocultural contexts in which life was lived. Lying at the core of these transformations was the impact of early modern science as it emerged in the 17th century. This course will examine the dynamics of the ‘Scientific Revolution’ paying close attention to such figures as Kepler, Galileo, Descartes, Hobbes, Leibniz, and Newton. We will be concerned with the philosophical consequences of their thought within the context of their period, but also with the affect it had on the Scientific world-picture of the 18th Century Enlightenment.

1660 Paradox-Honors College
Earman, John
T & H 11-12:15
In this course we will explore paradoxes both for the fun of untangling intriguing puzzles and for the more serious reason of the easy access paradoxes provide to some of the most important foundations issues in philosophy, logic, mathematics, and the sciences. Examples: Zeno’s paradoxes of motion and paradoxes of supertasks; paradoxes of infinity; the liar paradox; paradoxes of time travel; paradoxes of rationality (the surprise exam paradox, the ravens paradox); paradoxes of decision (Newcomb’s paradox, the prisoners’ dilemma).Prerequisites: None; but is recommended that students have completed an introductory logic course.

1702 JR/SR Seminar
Lennox, James
W 9:30-12
Students enrolled in HPS 1702 have chosen to major in a subject known as History and Philosophy of Science. In this year's Junior/Senior Seminar we will explore the vexed question of the relationship between the study of the history of science and the study of the philosophy of science. Immediately after the publication of Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, this was a a very hotly debated question. The debate was never resolved, and the field has 'splintered' in various ways as a result. We will start by going back and looking at the nature of that debate and its underlying assumptions, and look at the different ways in which historians and philosophers of science reacted to the debate. Each student in the class will be asked to select a research topic which combines historical and philosophical investigation of science, and to reflect on the respective roles of history and philosophy in their research.

1703 Writing Workshop for HPS Major
Lennox, James
This writing workshop is designed to introduce HPS majors to the methods and standards of good scholarly writing in History and Philosophy of Science. It will be offered to HPS majors only in conjunction with HPS 1702, JR/SR Seminar. Evaluation will be based on two short papers that will be rewritten on the basis of the instructor's comments. Must be an HPS Major in Junior or Senior year.

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