Philosophy of Science (PHIL 304)

Philosophy of Science (PHIL 304)

Instructor: Sandy Berkovski

Fall 2011

Contact details
sandy.berkovski+comment@gmail.com, Bilkent ext. 1048
Office hours
FA113C, Wed 13:30-15:30, and by appointment

The name of the game

The course will consist of lectures combined with seminar-style discussions. At each meeting there will be a text to read and discuss. In addition there will be five 300-500 words long home assignments.

Readings

Readings for this course consist of articles. All of them, apart from the Goodman text, are contained in the Balashov and Rosenberg collection. Students are required to bring along their copy of the text currently studied.

[BR02]
Y. Balashov and A. Rosenberg, editors. Philosophy of Science: Contemporary Readings. Routledge, 2002.
[Goo83]
N. Goodman. Fact, Fiction, and Forecast. Harvard University Press, 1983. Relevant photocopies provided.

Preliminary term schedule

Week 1
Introduction; Logical Empiricism: Schlick[1]
Week 2
Explanation: Hempel[3], van Fraassen[4]
Week 3
Explanation: Kitcher[5], Salmon[6]
Week 4
Laws of nature: Earman[8]
Week 5
Scientific change: Feyerabend[10]
Week 6
Scientific change: Kitcher[11]
Week 7
Realism: McMullin[15]
Week 8
Confirmation: Russell[16], Popper[17]; Midterm exam
Week 9
Confirmation: Goodman, Achinstein[20]
Week 10
Testability: Hanson[21]
Week 11
Testability: Quine[22]
Week 12
Testability: Salmon[24]
Week 13
Scientific revolutions: Shapere[25]
Week 14
Scientific revolutions: Kuhn[26]
Week 15
Final exam

Grading

The grades will have the following weight:
Assignments                     10%
Midterm exam                     45%
Final exam                     45%
While your overall grade at the end of the term will be according to Bilkent's standard A-F scale, I shall grade your work during the term by using my own percentage scale. These two scales relate to each other as follows:
Numerical scale (%)                     Bilkent scale
90 - 100                     A
85 - 90                     A-
80 - 85                     B+
75 - 80                     B
70 - 75                     B-
65 - 70                     C+
60 - 65                     C
55 - 60                     C-
50 - 55                     D+
40 - 50                     D
00 - 40                     F


File translated from TEX by TTH, version 3.85.
On 20 Sep 2011, 11:33.