NOTE 1: Revising your work in response to comments will be central to the requirements.
The first and second assignments each consist of two parts: an initial version and a revision.
The revision will be due one week after the initial version has been handed back.
The two versions are graded separately and count equally much.

1st assignment (2 pages): initial version due Tue Oct 2. [15% for initial version plus revision]
2nd assignment: Take home exam (4 pages): initial version due Tue Nov. 13 [30% for initial version plus revision]
3rd assignment: Term paper. (8 pages) [45%]
Due on 'Dean's date'. No extensions without Dean's permission.
Precept participation [10%]

In Course Packet #2, read the selections by Horgan and Kraus and the discussions of each (in letters to the NY Times).
These articles are about models and theories in science. They seem to contain arguments both for

and also for

You'll see that neither author is very clear about which view he endorses; you will find passages of both sorts.
Choose some passages of both sorts (at least one of each), analyze the arguments in them, and discuss whether the author reaches a univocal overall conclusion.
(Important: do not select very much of this material for discussion -- definitely do not select the whole of this material, nor even of the whole of one article; BE SELECTIVE.)
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PART ONE. THE TRADITIONAL PHILOSOPHICAL QUESTIONS ABOUT SCIENCE:
Six weeks

[1] Science: Creation or Discovery?

• 1.1 Intro: two 'pictures' of what science is
• 1.2 Discussion of these two pictures
• 1.3 The continuum of constrained creation

[2] The Unbearable Lightness of Data
Do the facts dictate the theories? Or is there leeway between fact and theory?

• 2.1 Intro: What do these questions mean?
• 2.2 Could rival theories be 'empirically equivalent' in principle?
• 2.3 Contemporary scientific examples of this problem

[3] A Heroic Failure: Induction and its (Mis-)Fortunes

• 3.1 Intro: Expectations and opinions, about the future, distant past, and elsewhere
  How do we form such opinions, and are they rational?
• 3.2 Naive ideas about Induction
• 3.3 Worse problems: the ambiguity of Induction
• 3.4 Probability to the rescue?
• 3.5 Reflections on the use of probability
• 3.6 Conclusion: idea of Induction has never worked yet, but ...

[4] Inventing Explanations, and the Search for Laws

• 4.1 Intro: a very different view of science.
• 4.2 Critique of 'data-fitting' and Induction as views of science
• 4.3 Descartes' method of hypotheses, criticized by Newton.
• 4.4 Who was right? Some examples, ordinary and scientific.
• 4.5 Contemporary views (akin to Descartes)

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PART TWO. SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTIONS: RELATIVITY, SPACE/TIME, EVOLUTION
Three weeks
[5] Ancient Relativity.

• 5.1 The three-story Universe
• 5.2 The two-sphere universe
• 5.3 Aristotelian relativity
• 5.4 Anomalies of Aristotle's world-picture

[6] Modern Relativity.

• 6.1 Galilean relativity
• 6.2 What is relative, and what absolute?
• 6.3 Newton's backsliding: Absolute Space and Time.

[7] Darwinism: its Innovations, Eclipse, and Resurgence

• 7.1 Change and chance: new forms of theory
• 7.2 Darwin's basic principles
• 7.3 The (near) eclipse of Darwinism
• 7.4 Enter genetics: modelling nature on many levels
• 7.5 Philosophical lessons and disputes

PART THREE. SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTIONS IN PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVE
Three weeks.

[8] The Shift In Historical Perspective

• 8.1 Kuhn's description of how sciences develop
• 8.2 Rivalry among paradigms
• 8.3 The main traditional views contrasted with Kuhn's

[9] Is Science A Search For Truth Or For Consensus?

• 9.1 A Short Intro to Epistemology
• 9.2 First Proposal for what a search for truth is
• 9.3 Second Proposal for what a search for truth is
• 9.4 Epistemic dilemmas; the pragmatist turn

[10] Is Science A Search For Causes Or For Satisfying Explanations?

• 10.1 Scientific explanation: the traditional/received view
• 10.2 Scientific explanation: the solution is Kuhnian

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BOOKS REQUESTED TO BE ON RESERVE (FIRESTONE)

(The tags "Required" and "Optional" indicate Reserve Room policy on borrowing only)

Darwin, On the Origin of Species , QH365 .O2 1979b, Required

Duhem, To save the phenomena , 8403.314 1969, Optional

Horwich, World Changes: Thomas Kuhn and the nature of science , Q175.3.T48 1993, Required

Infeld and Einstein, The Evolution of Physics , 8207.321, Required

Kourany, Scientific knowledge: basic issues in the philosophy of science , Q175.3.S327 1998, Required

Kuhn, The Copernican Revolution , 8404.266.54, Required

Laudan, Science and hypothesis: historical essays on scientific methodology , Q175.3.38, Required

Lipton, Inference to the best explanation , Q175.L556 1991, Optional

Losee, Historical introduction to the philosophy of science , Q174.8.L67 1980, Required

Ridley, The Essential Darwin , QH365.D25 R53 1986, Optional

van Fraassen, Introduction to the philosophy of time and space , BD632.V27 1990z, Optional

van Fraassen, Laws and symmetry , BD581.V27 1989, Optional

van Fraassen, The Scientific Image , Q175.V335 1980, Optional

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