In this course, we will focus on some of the main issues that have arisen in the last 100 years or so in the philosophy of science. We will consider the following questions, among others: (1) What is a scientific theory? (2) Under what conditions should a scientific theory be accepted, and how should scientific progress take place? (3) How is science, understood as a social enterprise, organized, and how does this affect scientific practice? (4) What is the nature of scientific explanation? (5) Should unobservable entities posited by scientific theories be regarded as real? Students will be evaluated on the basis of participation, written exams, and short argumentative papers. By the end of this course, students will have become familiar with the central issues in the philosophy of science, and will have improved their critical thinking and writing skills.
