printer friendly pagePHIL 60: Introduction to Philosophy of Science (HPS 60)
Science is phenomenally successful at predicting and explaining the world we live in including our own biology. Without the technological advances brought about by science, our lives would be radically different: no electricity, no cars, no smart phones, no plastics, no arthroscopic surgery, no antibiotics, no GPS, and on and on. Science tells us what the fundamental structure of reality is like: space and time, the soup of fundamental particles occupying it and composing us, and the fundamental forces that govern their behavior. Many suspect that the world the sciences show us leaves no space for God(s), and maybe doesn't leave much space for things like morality or free will either. But does science really succeed in all of these ways or only in some of them? When it succeeds, what accounts for its success? What does it take for a way of investigating the world to count as scientific? We will consider in detail a few central issues raised by attempts to answer these questions.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
PHIL 60S: Introduction to Philosophy of Science
The successes of science in the modern world are ubiquitous, and science as well as its successes are clearly important for understanding that world and our place in it. But what exactly makes one form of intellectual activity or social practice scientific? What distinguishes science from pseudo-science, and what, if anything, distinguishes it from other disciplines that aim at truth (e.g. philosophy)? In what sense *does* science aim at truth? What value, if any, does purely theoretical scientific inquiry have for us? Does commitment to scientific inquiry and taking its findings seriously leave any room for free will or God in our total comprehension of reality? These questions will be raised and considered in varying degrees of detail through an accessible set of readings, in-class discussion, and some short writing assignments. No prerequisites.
Terms: Sum
| Units: 3
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