| HPS 2501/Phil 2600 | Philosophy of Science | Fall 2020 |
Back to course documents.
| Week | Date | Topic/Reading Event | Presented by |
| 1 | Aug. 19 | Introduction to the seminar | Norton |
| Conspiracy Theories | |||
| An introduction to Conspiracy Theories. | Norton | ||
| Aug. 26 | Warm up exercise due before seminar. | ||
| 2 |
Aug. 26 |
Discussion: What are philosophers of science to say about
conspiracy theories? Useful reading: Brian L. Keely, "Of Conspiracy Theories," The Journal of Philosophy, 96, No. 3. (Mar., 1999), pp. 109-126. Matthew R. X. Dentith, "When inferring to a conspiracy might be the best explanation," Preprint for Social Epistemology, 2016. |
ALL |
| Falsificationism and the Demarcation of Science. | |||
| Karl Popper, "Science: Conjectures and Refutations" Sections I-III only, pp. 33-41 in Conjectures and Refutations. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1963. For interesting background see: "Einstein-Besso Manuscript on the Motion of the Perihelion of Mercury," Headnote in The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein. Vol. 4. pp. 345+. Or here. Albert Einstein, "Induction and Deduction in Physics," Berliner Tageblatt, 25 December, 1919. The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein. Vol. 7. Doc. 28. German. English. Or here: German English. |
Norton Handouts: Popper Einstein-Besso Einstein-induction Salmon |
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| Wesley Salmon, "Rational Prediction," British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 32 (1981), pp. 115-25. |
Norton |
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| 3 |
Sept. 2 |
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. |
Nic Fillion handout |
| Empiricism | |||
| 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 |
Brett Park handout |
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| Boyd, Nora “Evidence Enriched,” Philosophy of Science 85(3)(2018), pp. 403-421. | Natalie Runkle handout |
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| Optional background reading: Bas C. Van Fraassen, "To Save the Phenomena," Ch. 3 in The Scientific Image. Oxford: Clarendon, 1980. |
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| Realism and Antirealism | |||
| 4 |
Sept. 9 |
Larry Laudan, "A Confutation of Convergent
Realism," Philosophy of Science, 48, (1981), pp. 19-49. |
Tessa Murthy Powerpoint |
| Steven French, “Structure as a Weapon of the Realist.” Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 106 (2006), pp.1–19. |
Erin Sheridan handout |
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| Michela Massimi, "Four Kinds of Perspectival Truth," Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 2016/2018 | Jordan Olson slides |
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| Representation | |||
| 5 |
Sept. 16 |
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. |
Erin Sheridan Powerpoint |
| Inferential account. Suárez, Mauricio (2004). "An Inferential Conception of Scientific Representation," Philosophy of Science, 71, pp. 767–779. |
Tessa Murthy presentation |
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| Models and Idealizations | |||
| Ernan McMullin, "Galilean Idealization," Studies in History and Philosophy of Science,16 (1985),pp. 247-273. |
Eric Anderson Powerpoint |
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| 6 | Sept. 23 | Michael Weisberg, “Three Kinds of Idealization,” The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 104, No. 12 (Dec.), 639-659. |
Kyra Hoerr Powerpoint |
| Mary S. Morgan and Tarja Knuuttila, "Models and Modelling in Economics," Preprint for U. Mäki (ed) Handbook of the Philosophy of Economics in Handbook of the Philosophy of Science | Brett Park | ||
| Inductive Inference | |||
| 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 notes |
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| 7 |
Sept. 30 |
John D. Norton, "Hempel's Satisfaction Criterion of Confirmation" pp.66-82 in A Survey of Inductive Generalization Manuscript. |
Norton notes Gems |
| Paul Thagard, "The Best Explanation: Criteria for Theory Choice," Journal of Philosophy, 75 (1978): 76-92. |
Eric Anderson Powerpoint |
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| Bayesian Confirmation Theory | |||
| Joyce, James, "Bayes' Theorem", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy | Erin Sheridan Powerpoint |
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| 8 |
Oct. 7 |
Jan Sprenger and Stephan Hartmann, "Variation 1: Confirmation and
Induction," in Sprenger and Hartmann, Bayesian Philosophy of
Science. |
Erin Sheridan Powerpoint |
| For a dissenting view, see John D. Norton, "Why Not Bayes," Ch. 10 in The Material Theory of Induction | ------- |
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| Underdetermination | |||
| Larry Laudan and Jarrett Leplin, "Empirical Equivalence and
Underdetermination," Journal of Philosophy, 87 (1991), pp. 449-472. |
Jordan Olson slides |
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| Kyle Stanford, "The Problem of Unconceived Alternatives," Ch.2 in Exceeding Our Grasp Science, History and the Problem of Unconceived Alternatives. Oxford University Press. 2006. |
Brett Park Powerpoint |
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| Oct. 14 | No seminar meeting. Student self-care day. | ||
| Values in Philosophy of Science | |||
| 9 | Oct. 21 | Thomas S. Kuhn "Objectivity, Value Judgment, and Theory Choice," Ch. 13, pp. 320-339 in The Essential Tension. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1977. |
Brett Park Powerpoint |
| Heather Douglas, "Origins of the Value-Free Ideal for Science," Ch. 3 in Science Policy and the Value-Free Ideal. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2009. | Natalie Runkle Powerpoint |
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| Feminist Philosophy of Science |
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| Helen Longino, "Research on Sex Differences," Ch. 6 in Science as Social Knowledge: Values and Objectivity in Scientific Inquiry. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990. | Kyra Hoerr Powerpoint |
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| 10 |
Oct. 28 |
Wylie, Alison. (2017) Preprint of "What knowers know well:
standpoint theory and gender archeology." Scientiae Studia.
15(1)(2017), pp. 13-38. 10.11606/51678-31662017000100002. |
Eric Anderson Powerpoints |
| Revolutions and Meaning Change | |||
| Paul K. Feyerabend, "Problems of Empiricism," pp. 145-261 in R. G. Colodny, ed., Beyond the Edge of Certainty: Essays in Contemporary Science and Philosophy. Lanham, NY: University Press of American, 1965, 1983. This is a long article. Focus on how Feyerabend arrives at the failure of "meaning invariance." |
Natalie Runkle Powerpoint |
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| Imre Lakatos, “History of Science and Its Rational
Reconstructions,” in PSA 1970. Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association, Vol. 1970 (1970), pp. 91-136. (Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science VIII.) |
Clara Bueno Powerpoint |
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| Experiment and Simulation | |||
| 11 |
Nov. 4 |
Allan Franklin and Sobodan Perovic, "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. |
Tessa Murthy Powerpoint |
| Wendy Parker, "Does Matter Really Matter? Computer Simulations,
Experiments, and Materiality" Synthese, 169 (2009) pp. 483-496. |
Natalie Runkle Powerpoint |
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| Margaret Morrison, “Models, measurement and computer simulation:
The changing face of experimentation,” Philosophical Studies, 143(2012), pp. 33–57. |
Kyra Hoerr handout |
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| Causation | |||
| 12 |
Nov. 11 |
Richard Scheines, "An Introduction to Causal Inference," pp. 185-199 in V. R. Kim and S. P. Turner, eds., Causality in Crisis? University of Notre Dame Press, 1997. |
Tessa Murthy Powerpoint |
| 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. |
Clara Bueno Powerpoint |
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| Reduction and Emergence | |||
| 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. |
Eric Anderson slides |
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| 13 | Nov. 18 | J. A. Fodor, "Special Sciences (Or: The Disunity of Science as a
Working Hypothesis)," Synthese, 28 (1974), pp. 97-115. |
Clara Bueno |
| Robert Batterman, 2000, "Multiple Realization and Universality" British Journal for the Philosophy of Science. 51, pp. 115-145. |
Jordan Olson slides |
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| Explanation | |||
| Philip Kitcher, "Explanation as Unification," 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. | Kyra Hoerr Powerpoint |
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| Thanksgiving. No seminar meeting | |||
| 14 | Dec. 2 | 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. |
Clara Bueno Powerpoint |
| 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., | Jordan Olson slides |
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| Closing Discussion | All |
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| Dec. 9 | Comprehensive Exam (HPS PhD Program only) |
