Philosophy of Science (NP 101 or 102)

124. Philosophy of Science NP 101 or 102

 Philosophy of science is applied epistemology and applied metaphysics. It is theory of scientific knowledge and scientific method, including elements in philosophy of language, philosophy of mathematics, and metaphysics. It deals with metaphysical questions - about space, time, causation, ontology, necessity, truth - as they arise across the board in the special sciences, not just in physics.

Questions of method include questions of the theory-observation distinction, testability, induction, theory confirmation, and scientific explanation. They also include theory-change, whether inter-theoretic reduction, unification, or revolutionary change. They are at once questions about scientific rationality, and connect in turn with decision theory and the foundations of probability. They connect also with metaphysics, particularly realism: theory-change, scepticism, fictionalism, naturalism, the under-determination of theory by data, functionalism, and structuralism are all critiques of realism.

The subject also includes the study of major historical schools in philosophy of science. The most important of these is logical positivism (later logical empiricism), that dominated the second and third quarters of the last century. In fact, some of the most important current schools in philosophy of science are broadly continuous with it, notably constructive empiricism and structural realism.

The syllabus for this subject contains that for Part A of 105 and 106.

Don Gillies, Philosophy of Science in the Twentieth Century (Blackwell); James Ladyman, Understanding Philosophy of Science (Routledge).