HS 222

SCIENCE, PHILOSOPHY, AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE

COURSE INFO

• evaluation –
• mid-sem exam of 25 marks
• end-sem exam of 35 marks
• quiz of 15 marks
• presentation/term paper of 15 marks
• class participation of 10 marks

• marking and grading

OVERVIEW

• what is science?

• how is science different from other cognitive enterprises?

• what is philosophy?

• relation between science and philosophy

WHAT IS SCIENCE?

• a body of factual and descriptive claims about a target domain

• sciences – physics, economics, etc

• a method of investigating the world

• did the scientific method arise in 16th-17th century Europe or has it been a feature of all human
cultures?

• a rhetorical device meant to showcase some cognitive achievement

• science, pseudoscience, nonscience
WHAT MAKES SCIENCE DIFFERENT?

• science achieves cognitive superiority due to its insistence on empirical methods of

investigation
• empiricism – experience is the only ‘reliable’ source of ‘knowledge about the world’
• trivial? unrealistic? too restrictive?

• science achieves cognitive superiority due to its reliance on mathematical language and
formalisms
• need not opposed to the empiricist dictum
• too restrictive?
• science achieves cognitive superiority due to its unique social structure which encourages trust,
cooperation, and critical thinking
• opposed to dogmatic thinking (like religion)
• is science immune from dogmatic thinking?
• what about competition in science?
WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

• a study of the most general and fundamental questions

• logic – concerned with correct forms of reasoning
• epistemology – concerned with the nature of knowledge, rationality, &c
• metaphysics – concerned with the fundamental nature of things, causes, &c
• axiology – concerned with values like beauty, good, &c

• concerned with normative issues

• what ‘should’ be the case, instead of just asking what ‘is’ the case
• descriptive accounts constrain normative answers – ought implies can
SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY

• philosophy as a first-order inquiry

• questions that science cannot (in practice or in principle) answer
• what is time? do causes always precede effects? what is the meaning of life?

• philosophy as a second-order inquiry

• questions about why science cannot answer some first-order questions
• what constitutes scientific method? what enables science to provide an accurate representation
of reality?
• philosophy of science as a theory about science
• how do scientists reason/should reason?
• what is the nature of scientific theories? what is the relation between theory and evidence?
• what is the methodology of science?
• how does theory change happen? is there progress in science?

• how can philosophy of science help scientists?

• methodological role – what justifies the methods employed in practice
• prescriptive role – how should good science proceed

• the philosophical presuppositions of modern science – physicalism, empiricism, individualism