San José State University
Philosophy
160
"Philosophy
of Science"
Fall 2009
Prof. Janet D. Stemwedel
Department of Philosophy,
FOB 232
jstemwed@email.sjsu.edu
http://www.stemwedel.org
Office Hours: Tuesday 10:00-11:00
AM,
Thursday 10:00-11:00 AM,
or by appointment.
Course website: http://www.stemwedel.org/phil160_home.html
Course
Description:
This
course will explore what science is, what it does, and how it works. We will examine: the features of its methodology which
distinguish science from pseudo-science; how theoretical considerations and
experiments interact to shape the scientific picture of the world; how
scientific theories evolve and how theories from different scientific
disciplines are related; and whether science does or should purport to give us
a literally true picture of the world.
We will consider not only what is peculiar to the culture of science,
but also how this scientific culture fits into the culture of the larger
society.
Prerequisites: Completion of
core GE requirements, upper division standing, completion of WST, successful
completion of, or co-registration in, a 100W course.
Course
requirements:
Reading
responses. For 5 of the reading assignments, you
will be asked to write a short essay (1 typed, double-spaced page, approximately
400 words) engaging with some issue or issues in the reading. (Specific instructions for the reading
response assignments will be distributed in class.) The goal of these assignments is to help you read in an
active, engaged way, and to encourage you to develop your own view about these
issues. Your reading responses
will be graded on the basis of content as well as grammar, clarity,
conciseness, and coherence.
Reading responses are due in class on the dates listed in the
program. No late reading responses will be accepted, but I will drop your
lowest reading response grade before calculating your final grade. Taken together, the reading responses
will count for 25% of your course grade.
Exams. There will be a midterm and a final exam for this
course. The exams are intended to
evaluate your grasp of material from assigned readings, lecture, and class
discussions. Each exam will
include shorter objective items (e.g., definitions of key terms) and longer
essays that will require that you reflect critically on the course
material. More details on the
format and content of these exams will be distributed later in the term. The midterm exam will count for 20% of
the course grade and the final exam will count for 30% of the course grade.
Research
assignment. There will be an assignment that
requires you to find articles from the popular and scholarly scientific
literature, analyze these articles, develop an annotated bibliography, and
write a discussion of the different patterns of communication in popular and
scholarly scientific articles.
(Specific instructions for this research assignment will be distributed
in class.) The research assignment (the final write-up plus the preliminary
stages of the assignment) will count for 15% of your course grade.
Class
participation. Dialogue and discussion will play an
important role in our project of analyzing and assessing the central issues of
the course raised in reading assignments and lectures. Therefore, I expect that you will come
to class with your books, having done the readings and thought about the issues
they raise before our class meetings,
and ready to participate in general discussion, in-class writing exercises, and
periodic small group exercises.
Your class participation will count for 10% of your course grade.
Grading:
Reading
responses: 25%
Midterm
exam: 20%
Final
exam: 30%
Research
assignment: 15%
Class
participation: 10%
Total: 100%
Your marks on assignments will be converted to
percentages (e.g., 15/20 = 75%) and used to compute letter grades as follows:
|
A+ |
98-100% |
B+ |
87-89% |
C+ |
77-79% |
D+ |
67-69% |
|
A |
93-97% |
B |
83-86% |
C |
73-76% |
D |
60-66% |
|
A- |
90-92% |
B- |
80-82% |
C- |
70-72% |
F |
0-59% |
Academic
Honesty. I expect you to be familiar with
university policies on plagiarism, cheating, and other forms of academic
dishonesty. As well, I expect you
to understand the difference between proper attribution of the words and ideas
of others and plagiarism. If you
do not understand the difference, please make an appointment with me to discuss
proper attribution as soon as possible.
Plagiarism or cheating will
result in a failing grade in this course, and offenders may be subject to
further administrative sanctions.
Official academic integrity statement from the
Office of Judicial Affairs:
"Your
own commitment to learning, as evidenced by your enrollment at San Jose State
University, and the University's Integrity Policy, require you to be honest in
all your academic course work.
Faculty members are required to report all infractions to the office of
Judicial Affairs. The policy on
academic integrity can be found at:
http://sa.sjsu.edu/judicial_affairs/index.html"
If you need course adaptations or
accommodations because of a disability, or if you have emergency medical
information to share with me, or if you need to make special arrangements in
case the building must be evacuated, please make an appointment with me as soon
as possible, or see me during office hours.
Presidential Directive 97-03 requires that
students with disabilities requesting accommodations must register with the DRC
to establish a record of their disability.
|
AREA R GOALS AND CONTENT: This course fulfils
Area R of upper division GE. The goals of this course are for students to
cultivate knowledge of the scientific study of the physical universe and its
life forms and to understand and appreciate the interrelationship of science
and human beings to each other. Diversity: This course considers a diverse range of perspectives on
philosophy of science, including feminist philosophy of science. (This is
covered in Unit 6) Writing: The reading
response essays, research assignment (including online discussions), and
essay questions on the midterm and final exams will require a total of more
than 5000 words of writing. STUDENT LEARNING
OBJECTIVES FOR AREA R: In this course,
students are expected to acquire certain upper-level General Education
competencies. In particular, they should be able to: 1. "demonstrate an
understanding of the methods and limits of scientific investigation": This is
the topic of the entire course, and students will demonstrate their
understanding of various aspects of the methods and limits of scientific
investigation in their writing assignments and exams. 2. "distinguish
science from pseudo-science": We touch on this theme throughout the course,
but especially in our discussion of Popper in Unit 4. Students will have the
opportunity to demonstrate this particular competency in the "Science or
Pseudo-Science?" in-class activity and on midterm and final exams. 3. "apply a scientific approach to answer questions about the
earth and environment": This competency is one of the main themes of the
course, especially in Unit 3. Students will demonstrate their ability to
apply a scientific approach in each of the in-class group tasks over the
course of the semester. Courses to meet Areas R, S, and V of SJSU Studies must be taken
from three different departments. |
Required
Texts:
Peter Godfrey-Smith, Theory and Reality: an Introduction to the Philosophy of Science
(PGS)
Philosophy 160 Course Reader (CR) — available for purchase at Maple Press
PROGRAM:
Reading assignments are due on the dates for which they are
listed.
Tu-Aug. 25
FIRST CLASS;
introductory remarks.
1. The Scientific Method:
To be discussed: What makes science different from other human activities? What does science do? What does science achieve?
Th-Aug.
27 PGS, Ch.
1 "Introduction" (1-18).
Stephen S. Carey, "Science," from A Beginner's Guide to the Scientific Method
(1-7) CR
Carl Hempel, Philosophy of Natural Science, 2.1-2.2
(3-9) CR
2. Logical Empiricism:
To be discussed: What roles do logic and empiricism play in science? How did the logical positivists and logical empiricists understand science?
Tu-Sep. 1 PGS,
Ch. 2 "Logic Plus Empiricism" (19-38).
Th-Sep. 3 Herbert
Feigl, "Logical Empiricism" CR
Recommended: Peter Galison,
"Aufbau/Bauhaus: Logical Positivism and Architectural Modernism" CR
3. Induction and Confirmation, Theory and Experiment:
To be discussed: What can an experiment tell us about the world? How are scientific theories tested? Can I prove the sun will rise tomorrow?
Tu-Sep.
8 PGS,
Ch. 3 "Induction and Confirmation" (39-56).
David
Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human
Understanding, §IV CR
Th-Sep.
10 Hempel,
Philosophy of Natural Science, 2.3
(10-18) CR
Hempel, Philosophy of Natural Science, 3.1-3.5 (19-32) CR
Reading response #1 due.
Tu-Sep.
15 Pierre
Duhem, "Physical Theory and Experiment"
CR
W.V. Quine, "Two Dogmas of
Empiricism" CR
4. Popper and Falsification:
To be discussed: What is the distinguishing mark of scientific activity? How do we distinguish science from pseudo-science? Does the problem of induction make science impossible?
Th-Sep.
17 PGS,
Ch. 4 "Popper: Conjecture and Refutation" (57-74).
Tu-Sep.
22 Designated
furlough day – class will not meet.
Th-Sep.
24 Karl
Popper, "Science: Conjectures and Refutations" CR
Popper, "The Problem of
Induction" (426-432) CR
Recommended: Carey, "Fallacies in the
Name of Science" (107-126) CR
Reading response #2 due.
5. Kuhn and Scientific Theory Change:
To be discussed: What role does theory play in the everyday practice of science? How do scientists choose between competing scientific theories? Are observations objective? Is theory choice rational?
Tu-Sep.
29 PGS,
Ch. 5 "Kuhn and Normal Science" (75-86).
Thomas S. Kuhn, The
Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Ch. II, "The Route to Normal Science"
(10-22) CR
Th-Oct.
1 Kuhn,
SSR, Ch. III, "The Nature of Normal Science" (23-34) CR
Kuhn, SSR, Ch. IV, "Normal
Science as Puzzle-solving" (35-42)
CR
Recommended: Kuhn, SSR, "Postscript,"
§§1-3 (176-191) CR
Recommended: Margaret Masterman, "The
Nature of a Paradigm" CR
Reading response #3 due.
Tu-Oct.
6 PGS,
Ch. 6 "Kuhn and Revolutions" (87-101).
Kuhn,
SSR, Ch. X, "Revolutions as Changes of World View" (111-135) CR
Th-Oct.
8 PGS,
Ch. 7 "Lakatos, Laudan, Feyerabend, and Frameworks" (102-121).
Tu-Oct. 13 Catch
up/review.
Th-Oct. 15 MIDTERM EXAM
6. What
Do Social Factors Have to Do with Science?
To be discussed: How does the nature of the scientific community affect the scientific knowledge it produces? Are scientific facts discovered or created? How can we achieve objective knowledge of the world?
Tu-Oct.
20 PGS,
Ch. 8 "The Challenge from Sociology of Science" (122-135).
Recommended: Barry Barnes and David
Bloor, "Relativism, Rationalism, and the Sociology of Knowledge" CR
Th-Oct. 22 PGS, Ch. 9
"Feminism and Science Studies" (136-148).
The Biology and Gender Study Group, "The Importance of Feminist
Critique for Contemporary Cell Biology"
CR
Tu-Oct.
27 Helen
E. Longino "Values and Objectivity"
CR
Reading response #4 due.
7. Naturalism:
To be discussed: What connection should philosophical theories have to scientific theories? What can science tell us about our philosophical accounts of science? What kind of connection to the world can science give us?
Th-Oct.
29 Designated
furlough day – class will not meet.
Tu-Nov. 3 RESEARCH
DAY (Class will not meet, but you can
use the classroom to meet with your Journal Club group.)
Th-Nov.
5 PGS,
Ch. 10 "Naturalistic Philosophy in Theory and Practice" (149-162).
Recommended: PGS, Ch. 11 "Naturalism
and the Social Structure of Science" (163-172).
8. Scientific Realism and Anti-Realism:
To be discussed: Must a good theory be a true theory? Should a theory make claims about entities we can't observe? What counts as observation?
Tu-Nov. 10 PGS, Ch. 12
"Scientific Realism" (173-189).
Th-Nov.
12 Grover
Maxwell, "The Ontological Status of Theoretical Entities" CR
Tu-Nov.
17 Bas C.
Van Fraassen, "Arguments Concerning Scientific Realism" CR
Reading response #5 due.
Th-Nov.
19 Ian
Hacking, "Do We See Through a Microscope?" CR
Charles Chihara and Carol
Chihara, "A Biological Objection to Constructive Empiricism" CR
Tu-Nov. 24 WHOLE-CLASS
DISCUSSION OF JOURNAL CLUB FINDINGS
Th-Nov. 26 THANKSGIVING
(Class will not meet.)
9. Explanation:
To be discussed: Does science explain? What does a good scientific explanation look like?
Tu-Dec.
1 PGS,
Ch. 13 "Explanation" (190-201).
Carey, "Proposing
Explanations" (26-44) CR
Th-Dec. 3 Carl
G. Hempel and Paul Oppenheim, "Studies in the Logic of Explanation" CR
Nancy
Cartwright, "The Truth Doesn't Explain Much" CR
Tu-Dec. 8 WRAP-UP/REVIEW
FINAL EXAM:
Phil 160 sec 01 (12:00
class): Wednesday, Dec. 16, 9:45 AM-12:00 noon
Phil 160 sec 02 (1:30
class): Tuesday, Dec. 15, 12:15-2:30 PM
JOURNAL CLUB TIMELINE:
Log in to Blackboard by Sep. 18.
Check in with your Journal Club group by Sep. 25.
Locate articles and post to your group by Oct. 16.
Begin discussing articles in online discussion by
Oct. 23.
Start organizing findings by Nov. 6.
Discuss preliminary analysis in class on Tues. Nov.
24.
Final analysis and annotated bibliography due by class time Thurs. Dec. 3.