Course Description:

The aim of this course is to expose students to the philosophical issues, problems and foundations of the natural sciences.  The questions that we will address during the course of the semester include the following:

• What is the nature of science, and how does it differ from pseudo-science?
• To what degree is scientific objectivity possible? To what degree do values inform scientific research?
• What allows us to say that a theory is confirmed or disconfirmed, supported or unsupported?  What counts as relevant evidence?
• To what extent are scientific theories underdetermined by the evidence?
• To what extent are observations theory-laden?
• What, in general, is the nature of scientific explanation and prediction?
• Is it (or should it be) the goal of science to give us 'true picture' of the world?  Or is our cognitive nature such that we will never get to the 'things in themselves'?
• What is the ontological status of theoretical entities?
• What is a 'law of nature'?
• Are there natural kinds?
• What does it mean to say that one scientific theory reduces to another?  How is it possible to talk about 'levels' of explanation?