 2015 - 2016 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 0618-1041-01 | Introduction to the Philosophy of Science I | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| FACULTY OF HUMANITIES | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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University credit hours: 2.0
Course description
Following a brief survey of various approaches to philosophy of science, the course will historically chart and analyse several of milestone attempts to understand modern science, their background and shifting contexts. These will include: the two foundational philosophies of science that accompanied the rise of science during the 17th century: Francis Bacon's empiricist-inductivism and Rene Descartes' rationalism; the acute philosophical challenge af Newton's physics; the debate concerning the nature of the infinitesimal calculus; the birth of scientific instrumentalism in the Lagrange's analytical mechanics; the challenge of Hume's purist empiricism; Kant's philosophy of science; the philosophical challenge of the birth of the historical sciences; several major trends in 19th century philosophy of science; the philosophical challenge of early 20th century physics, and the nature of its two novel responses.