ReynoldsPHIL 3114 History and Philosophy of Science
PHIL 3114/HIST 3117 History and Philosophy of Science
Professor Andrew Reynolds
Tues. & Thurs. 2:30-3:45, CC261
Office hours: Mon. & Wed. 10-12; Thurs. 11-12, CC219
email:
History of science without philosophy of science is blind…philosophy of science without history of science is empty. N.R. Hanson
This course provides an introduction to the interdisciplinary field known as history and philosophy of science (HPS).It is a natural progression for students who have taken PHIL 2221 or PHIL 2223 (formerly PHIL 2222) or PHIL 2104 (formerly NASC 1120).
Traditionally the projects of understanding the development of science and scientific ideas, i.e. the history of science, and of understanding how science operates and provides knowledge and understanding about the natural and social worlds, i.e. the philosophy of science, were separate affairs. Historians were concerned simply to tell the story of how science or sciences ‘progressed’ (it being a philosophical assumption that scientific theory and knowledge over time does progress in a cumulative fashion); while philosophers tended to focus on a highly abstract and ahistorical image of science as an ideal activity of rational thought and logical inference.It was dissatisfaction with this state of affairs that led Norwood Russell Hanson to make the statement quoted above. In general there has been since the 1960s a movement toward the ‘historicization’ of science, i.e. recognition that a proper understanding of science requires greater attention to its historical development, including the shifting socialcontexts in which it grows and flourishes. The result is a genuine blending of both disciplinary perspectives to create the interdisciplinary field of history and philosophy of science, or HPS.
Issues to be covered in this course include philosophical and social assumptions informing the writing of the history of science, objectivity and progress in science, science and values, realist and anti-realist interpretations of scientific theory, and the role of metaphor in scientific practice and explanation.
Required Texts:
Kuhn, Thomas. 2013. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.4th ed. University of Chicago Press.
Okasha, Samir. 2002. Philosophy of Science: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press.
Other readings will be available through the course Moodle site. To access the PHIL 3114 Moodle page go to the CBU frontpage < and at the top of the page click on ‘Current Students’, then on the right locate the green ‘Login to:’ section and click ‘Moodle’ at the top of the list. You will be asked to log-in with your student ID and password, and from there navigate to the PHIL 3114 page. There you will find the course and instructor information, syllabus, and readings.
Delivery Methods:
Classes will consist of lectures and seminars in which students will be responsible for presenting and summarizing a reading.
Evaluation Scheme:
Short in-class presentation:10 %
Mid-term test30 %
Research/writing assignment:40 %
Essay Project Presentation (last 2 weeks):10 %
Class participation:10 %
The in-class presentation will involve presenting a reading to the group (basically leading the discussion on the reading for about 15 minutes). The Research/Writing Assignment (40%) requires you to choose some topic of current interest in science and discuss (7-10 pages double-spaced) how issues from history and philosophy of science are of relevance to it. Topics might include, for example, creationism and evolution, issues of gender and science, medicine and scientific theories of disease and health, cultural influences on science (e.g. is science exclusively a product of ‘Western’ society? Are there other non-Western sciences?), the role of some specific metaphor in some branch of science, or some other topic of your choosing (with consultation with me). In the last two weeks of class you will present your project (or a prospectus thereof) to the class (10%). This means the project is worth as a whole 50% of your final grade. The written portion of the project need not be completed for the presentation, but it will allow you an opportunity to articulate your ideas and to receive feedback from one another and myself.
Rubric for Class Participation Evaluation
9-10 / Excellent attendance, participates in discussions, listens well to contributions of other students, moves conversation forward in a productive manner7-8 / Regular to excellent attendance, some participation in discussion, attentive to class
5-6 / Irregular attendance, or regular attendance but little participation in discussion
1-4 / Poor attendance, little participation in discussion
0 / ‘Ghost’ student—no attendance, no participation
Syllabus:
Week 1 (Sept. 13-15):
Topics:Introduction: Images of Science. What is Science? Science as product (objectively true description of reality) and as process (value-free rational method).Critical appraisal:to what extent is science a reflection of objective nature and to what extent a reflection of the people who create it and the cultural-social-historical contextswithin which they live?
Topics:Historiographic Styles: History of Great Men (Hagiography), Positivism, History of Ideas, Social History, Microhistory, Postmodernism
Reading:Robert J. Richards, “Introduction” from Was Hitler a Darwinian? Disputed Questions in the History of Evolutionary Theory. (Chicago: 2013)
Week 2 (Sept.20-22):
Topics: The Historical Turn
Reading:Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (Normal science) chs. 1-4
Week 3 (Sept.27-29):
Topics: Scientific Revolutions, Science and Progress
Reading:Structure of Scientific Revolutions cont. (crisis and revolution) chs. 5-9
Week 4 (Oct.4-6):
Topics:Scientific Revolutions, Science and Progress
Reading:Structure of Sci. Revolutions cont. (resolution and progress) chs. 10-13
Week 5 (Oct.11-13):Review
Mid-Term Test
We will plan to have the test on Thursday Oct. 13
Week 6 (Oct. 18-20):
Topics:Historical Ontology
Reading:Hacking “Language, truth, and reason”
Reading:Ruse “Darwinism and mechanism: metaphor in science”
Week 7 (Oct.25-27):
Topics:Models and Laws
Reading:Black “Models and archetypes”
Reading: Cartwright “The truth doesn’t explain much”
Week 8 (Nov. 1-3):
Topics:Models and Truth
Reading: Giere “Scientific theorizing”, Ch. 4 from Scientific Perspectivism(2006)
Week 9 (Nov. 8-10):
Topics:Images, Truth, and Historical Judgement
Reading:Pennisi “Haeckel’s Embryos: Fraud Rediscovered”
Reading:Richards “Haeckel’s Embryos: Fraud Not Proven”
Week 10 (Nov.15-17):
Topics:Metaphor and explanation
Reading:Reynolds “The deaths of a cell: How language and metaphor influence the science of cell death”; ORReynolds “Implications of scientific metaphor for the scientific realism question”, excerpt from msThe Third Lens: Metaphor and the Creation of Modern Cell Biology
Week 11 (Nov. 22-24):
Student Presentations:
Week 12 (Nov. 29-Dec. 2):
Student Presentations: