Corso di laurea magistrale in Filosofia

Is science a rational endeavor? Which role should it play in modern society? To what extent can scientific reasoning contribute to answering fundamental philosophical questions?

The course explores these and other questions in a way that combines tutorials in uncertain reasoning (e.g., probabilistic and statistical inference) with a philosophical debate on how science works, why it is often successful and what are its limits. The course challenges the students both on a conceptual level---e.g., we debate various explications of complex concepts such as causation and theory confirmation---and on the level of formal reasoning, where they learn to reason within various frameworks for uncertain reasoning (e.g., classical statistics). Doing so is, however,  no aim in itself, but an essential prerequisite for understanding debates about the reliability and fruitfulness of modern science, and for being able to form a balanced judgment about these topics. Achieving this judgmental capacity is, ultimately, the main objective of this course.

After following the course, students will be able to answer the question what distinguishes science from other human endeavors, and to which degree (and in which respects) it is rational. They can also assess the scope and limits of scientific knowledge, they understand why science is often successful, and they appreciate the significance of scientific reasoning for other kinds of human endeavor. 

More precisely, students acquire familiarity with various formal tools (e.g., the probability calculus as a model of uncertain inference) and learn to apply them to central topics in philosophy of science. They gain an uinderstanding of what scientific reasoning is like, and why understanding science is important for solving foundational epistemological questions in philosophy. They also learn about the place of science in modern society and the role science plays in guiding public policy and complex decision-making (e.g., economic decisions, climate policy, and so on).

Mixture of lectures and seminar. Active contribution from the participants is a prerequisite for passing the course.

Written essay(s), written exam and oral test.

The course introduces the students to central debates in philosophy of science, such as causation, induction, scientific objectivity, values in science, and so on, with a focus on contemporary debates. These topics are mainly approached from an epistemological perspective. Questions we discuss are:

---What distinguishes genuine, knowledge-generating science from pseudo-science such as astrology?

---Can the problem of induction (i.e., challenging the rationality of inferring from past to future experience) be solved?

---Why is it the case that we have not yet found a fully satisfactory model of causation (and what are the most promising candidates)?

---Can science be free of political, religious and social values? (Think of research on gender differences, for instance.) Would this be desirable in the first place?

---Can science be trusted? (If you think the answer is obviously yes, think of the replication crisis.) Should it guide policy decisions?

---Why is the epistemology of science so important for a philosophical study of human knowledge?

A more precise program will be published in the weeks before the course starts.

We will mainly read shorter articles; the final list will be published later. Students who wish to prepare for the course (e.g., because they don't have a solid background in philosophy of science) may want to look at the following monographs and textbooks:

---Curd, M., and Cover, J.A. (eds.): Philosophy of Science: The Central Issues. Norton, New York. 1998.

---Descartes, R.: Meditationes de prima philosophia; Discours de la Méthode.

---Goodman, N.: Fact, Fiction and Forecast. Harvard University Press, Princeton/MA. 1983. 

---Hartmann, S. and Sprenger, J. (draft manuscript): Bayesian Philosophy of Science. Forthcoming with Oxford University Press.

---Hempel, C.G.: Aspects of Scientific Explanation (...and other essays in the philosophy of science). The Free Press, New York. 1965

---Howson, C., and Urbach, P.: Scientific Reasoning: The Bayesian Way. La Salle: Open Court. 2006.

---Hume, D.: An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. Originally published in 1748.

---Popper, K.R.: Logic of Scientific Discovery. Routledge. Chapters 1, 2 and 10. First English edition 1959, re-edited in 2002.