Philosophy of Science (Online)
offered by Oxford University

Philosophy of Science (Online)
at
Oxford University
Overview

Understand more advanced issues and arguments in the philosophy of science

What are the course deliverables?

Basic issues in the philosophy of science such as the demarcation problem
Debate among competing accounts of the scientific method
The problem of induction
The main theories of the nature of science
Main arguments for and against various positions in relation to the above issues

More about this course

This course introduces the core issues in the philosophy of science, in particular the debates about the nature of the scientific method, theories of confirmation, the demarcation of science from non-science, the rationality of theory change, and scientific realism
Participants will be introduced to the key thinkers in philosophy of science
The philosophy of science concerns the nature of science and what makes it distinctive among forms of human inquiry
This course provides an introduction to this subject beginning with the origins of modern science in the Scientific Revolution in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and concluding with an introduction to the latest controversies among contemporary philosophers of science including the debate about the various forms of scientific realism
Gain an appreciation for the importance of philosophy of science in the history of philosophy and an understanding of the ideas of the most famous names in the subject such as Bacon, Popper, Kuhn and Lakatos
This course aims to introduce participants to the core issues in the philosophy of science, in particular to the debates about the nature of the scientific method, theories of confirmation, the demarcation of science from non-science, the rationality of theory change, and scientific realism
Participants will be introduced to the key thinkers in twentieth century philosophy of science such as Popper, Carnap, Kuhn, Hempel and van Fraassen

Unit 1

The historical background to contemporary philosophy of science: the Scientific Revolution

Unit 2

The Problem of Induction

Unit 3

Karl Popper and Falsificationism

Unit 4

Thomas Kuhn and the idea of scientific revolutions

Unit 5

Recent theories of the scientific method

Unit 6

Scientific realism

Unit 7

The problem of underdetermination

Unit 8

Contemporary antirealism: van Fraassen?s Constructive Empiricism

Unit 9

The problems of theory change for scientific realism

Unit 10

Recent developments

Eligibility criteria Up Arrow Icon

Prerequisite: Familiar with using a computer for purposes such as sending email and searching the Internet

Conditional Offer Up Arrow Icon

Yes
In countries where the normal examinations have been cancelled, university will expect the conditions of student's offer to be met by the alternative assessment put in place by qualifications' regulators.