HUL 841: Philosophy of Science IInd Semester, 2013-14 Arudra Burra Department of Humanities and Social Science Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi January 6, 2014 Course description History, if viewed as a repository for more than anecdote or chronology, could produce a decisive transformation in the image of science by which we are now possessed. These are the famous first lines of Thomas Kuhn s classic The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962) in its own way a revolution in the study of science, and the source of a host of terms ( paradigm shift, incommensurability ) into our lexicon more generally. Our main aim in this class is to study and assess the contribution of this book to our understanding of science. We will start by trying to understand just what was the image of science by which Kuhn took his readers to be possessed, taking a close look at the work of the logical empiricists and of Karl Popper. Then we will proceed to read Structure carefully from beginning to end, making some stops and detours along the way to examine more general philosophical issues raised by the book, concerning such matters as the nature of theory and observation, meaning and reference, rationality and relativism. Pre-requisites and expectations There are no pre-requisites except enthusiasm, a willingness to work, and a tolerance for uncertainty. Since we will be carrying on a sustained conversation from one class to the next, I expect you to attend every class. The reading is likely to be in the neighbourhood of 30-40 pages a week, of varying levels of difficulty expect to read the material at least 2-3 times in order to get the hang of it. For students unfamiliar with philosophical reading and writing, I encourage you to consult Jim Pryor s invaluable advice: http://www.jimpryor.net/teaching/ index.html. Another electronic resource well worth consulting is the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://plato.stanford.edu/. 1
Administrative matters The course will meet once a week for three hours, tentatively from 5-8 pm on Wednesdays in the HSS Committee Room (MS 610), starting 8.1.2014. Readings will be available from SCOOPS, and online as well (Structure is available on flipkart.com: it is expensive, but well worth buying). Please note that I do not permit the use of laptops in class or in exams, so you must bring hardcopies. I will finalise my office hours in the first couple of weeks of the semester, but in general it is best to email me (burra@hss.iitd.ac.in) in order to make an appointment first. (I do not check email at night or over the weekend). My office is MS 620. Evaluation Pass-marks: 40% 50%: response-papers 50%: in-class final exam (4-6 hours) You will be required to submit six response-papers of about two pages each during the course of the semester (roughly one every two weeks), as indicated in the schedule below. Each will be graded out of 10 marks: I will choose the top five to compute your grade for this component of the course. In these papers I will expect you to reflect upon the readings and class discussions, and raise one or two points which you wish to discuss further in class. You will be graded on the basis of the clarity of your exposition, and the evident sincerity of your efforts to grapple with the material. Please arrange to have a hardcopy of your paper in my department mailbox by 5 pm on the day before class: you will lose one mark for every day of delay. In order to pass this class you must have submitted all response-papers in a timely fashion. The final, in-class, open-book exam will cover material from the entire course. Schedule of readings The following schedule is tentative, in that I may add or drop readings along the way, but the structure will remain more-or-less the same. 2
Week 1: Introduction 1. James Ladyman, Understanding Philosophy of Science [UPS], chapter one ( Induction and inductivism ), pp. 1-18 2. Peter Godfrey-Smith, Theory and Reality [TR], chapter one ( Introduction ), pp. 1-13 Week 2: Logical empiricism I 1. David Hume, Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (Selby-Bigge edition), pp. 163-5 2. TR, chapter two ( Logic plus Empiricism ), pp. 19-30 and 34-37 3. Alfred Ayer, Editor s Introduction, in Ayer, ed. Logical Positivism, pp. 3-17 4. Rudolf Carnap, The Elimination of Metaphysics through Logical Analysis of Language, in Ayer, ed. Logical Positivism, pp. 60-81 Week 3: Logical empiricism II Response paper #1 due 1. Carl Hempel, Philosophy of Natural Science, chapters two ( Scientific Inquiry: Invention and Test ) and three ( The Test of a Hypothesis: Its Logic and Its Force ), pp. 2-32 2. Ernest Nagel, The Structure of Science, chapter eleven ( The Reduction of Theories ), pp. 336-45 Week 4: Induction and confirmation 1. UPS, chapter one ( Induction and inductivism ), pp. 18-30 2. Martin Curd and J. A. Cover, Commentary on Induction, Prediction, and Evidence, in Curd and Cover, ed. Philosophy of Science: The Central Issues [PSCI] (2nd ed), pp. 457-463 3. Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy, chapter six ( On Induction ), pp. 60-9 4. Carl Hempel, Aspects of Scientific Explanation, chapter one ( Studies in the Logic of Confirmation ), pp. 3-13 3
Week 5: Falsificationism Response paper #2 due 1. Karl Popper, Science: Conjectures and Refutations, in Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge, pp. 33-59 2. UPS, chapter three ( Falsificationism ), pp. 62-92 3. W. H. Newton-Smith, The Rationality of Science, chapters three ( Popper The Irrational Rationalist ) and four ( In Search of the Methodologist s Stone ), pp. 46-49, 59-64, 70-76 Week 6: Structure I 1. Structure, chapter one ( Introduction: A Role for History ), pp. 1-9 2. UPS, chapter four ( Revolutions and rationality ), pp. 93-98 3. Ian Hacking, Representing and Intervening, chapter one ( Introduction: Rationality ), pp. 1-7 4. Israel Scheffler, Science and Subjectivity, chapter one ( Objectivity under Attack ), pp. 1-19 Week 7: Structure II Response paper #3 due 1. UPS, chapter four contd., pp. 98-101 2. Structure, chapters two-five and Postscript 1-3, pp. 10-51 and 174-91 Week 8: Interlude I theory and observation 1. UPS, chapter four contd., pp. 109-115 2. Norwood Russell Hanson, Patterns of Discovery, chapter one ( Observation ), pp. 4-30 3. Peter Achinstein, Concepts of Science, chapters five ( Observational Terms ) and six ( Theoretical Terms ), pp. 157-65, 179-86 Week 9: Structure III Response paper #4 due 1. Structure, chapters six-eight, pp. 52-91 4
Week 10: Interlude II holism 1. Pierre Duhem, Physical Theory and Experiment in PSCI, pp. 227-49 2. Quine, Two Dogmas of Empiricism ( 6) in PSCI, pp. 265-8 Week 11: Structure IV Response paper #5 due 1. Structure, chapters nine-eleven, pp. 92-143 Week 12: Interlude III incommensurability Readings TBA Week 13: Structure V Response paper #6 due 1. Structure, chapters twelve-thirteen, pp. 144-73 Week 14: Rationality and Scientific Progress Readings TBA 5