Foundations of Philosophy of Science

Basic Information

Course 2022/2023
Lecturer
Carl Hoefer
José Antonio Díez Calzada
Semester
2nd.
Department
Department of Philosophy
University
Universitat de Barcelona
Module
Module 7. Issues in Contemporary Theoretical and Practical Philosophy
Code
570637
Credits
5
Language
English

Dates

Schedule
Wednesdays, 10:30 - 13:00
Location
Philosophy Faculty (UB), room 402.

Description

The goal of this course is to introduce students to contemporary philosophical debates in philosophy of science, and to build the analytical and critical skills needed to contribute to those debates. This year the topic we will focus on representation and modelling in science, and its main philosophical problems.

Contents:

 Representation in Science

  1. Preliminaries: the problems of scientific representation
  2. The problem of directionality
  3. The problem of performance
  4. The problem of adequacy
  5. The problem of ontology
  6. Representation in contemporary physics

Learning outcomes

  • Students should be conversant with the fundamental concepts arguments deployed in the philosophical literature relating to the various notions of causation and probability.
  • Students should become acquainted with the most widely discussed and defended analyses of causation and of probability, and their strengths and shortcomings.
  • Students should be able to critically understand central texts in contemporary philosophy of science. 
  • Students should be able to communicate their knowledge and their arguments in a clear and articulate way. 
  • Students should be able to work both independently and in a team in an international environment. 
  • Students should be able to identify fallacies and methodological errors in reasoning.
  • Students should be able to critically engage with the concepts and methods of contemporary philosophy of science.
  • Students should be able to identify and critically engage with the current state of a particular philosophical debate, and form a reasoned view, even if provisional, about it.

Methodology

Classes in the first 4 or 5 weeks will be organized as overview presentations by the teachers. The rest of the sessions will consist of presentations and discussions of papers by students. Every paper will be read by all students and presented by one or two students. Before every paper session, all students will have to send as homework the answer to one question about the paper to be discussed in the session. Every student will write a final paper about the article she has presented

No special mathematics or scientific knowledge is presupposed, other than high-school level mathematics.

Evaluation

Homework (20%), presentations (20%), final paper (60%)

Bibliography

Bibliography
FRIGG, R y NGUYEN, J., 2021, Modelling Nature: An Opinionated Introduction to Scientific Representation, Springer, N York.
This is a general reference book. Papers to be read and presented, and additional bibliography will be delivered in the first session.