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Examining the 3 core topics in the contemporary philosophy of science: What counts as scientific knowledge? What counts as a scientific explanation? What role does classification play in science?
These themes will be examined in the context of some working examples from scientific practice. These topics will be integrated with some of the other topics discussed in other courses, including models, representations, mechanisms, causality and evidence.
Aims:
- To provide knowledge of the 3 core topics; knowledge, explanation and classification.
- To provide some foundational philosophy of science material.
- The theoretical concepts will be grounded in case studies from scientific practice. Students will be encouraged to think about other case studies.
- Integrate these topics with related theoretical concepts from other courses (e.g. models, representations, causation, mechanism and evidence)
Course Objectives:
By the end of this module students should be able to:
- A grounding in key concepts in history of philosophy of science.
- A grounding in the core conceptual accounts of knowledge, explanation and classification in contemporary philosophy of science
- A grounding in some case studies in scientific practice, from a range of scientific disciplines e.g. biochemistry, medicine, astronomy
- A grounding in some case studies from the history of science and how they illuminate these 3 philosophical topics.
- Students will be encouraged to think about other case studies and how the theoretical accounts would apply to them
- Students will be able to think philosophically, analyse arguments critically
- Students will be able to integrate the philosophical concepts learnt on this course with other HPS and STS courses.
Full pdf details:
UCL Module Catalogue: Knowledge, Explanation and Classification in Science (HPSC0085)