STSC 425 Philosophy of Science
Cross-listed as PHIL 425
Offered:Fall 2008
Domotor MW 3:30-5:00
This course fulfills the Capstone Research Requirement for STSC and HSOC majors.
This is an historically-oriented survey and contemporary analysis of the basic concepts and arguments in philosophy of science. An in-depth examination of the nature of scientific theories, their confirmation and theory-world relations, laws of nature and their role in unification and explanation, causation, and teleology, reductionism and supervenience, values and objectivity. Additional topics covered include arguments concerning scientific realism, the ontological status of theoretical entities, the Quine-Duhem thesis, Kuhn's paradigm shifts, Bayesianism, and the success of science.
Prerequisite: Background in elementary logic and some rudiments of science
