Philosophy of Science (pre-PhD)
Final exam

Final exam

Philosophy of Science
Instructor: Sandy Berkovski

Bilkent University
Fall 2010

Choose two of the following topics. Consult the essay writing guidelines here.
  1. `Theories explain diverse phenomena, and it would be a cosmic accident if a theory were false, yet correctly predicted the phenomena.' Is this a good argument for scientific realism?
  2. `When an image is a map of interactions between the specimen and the image of radiation, and the map is a good one, then we are seeing with a microscope.' Is this a good argument for scientific realism?
  3. Does the `grue' paradox make the predictive success of science miraculous?
  4. `To explain a phenomenon we must always mention its causes.' Do you agree? Why?
Exam sheets must be sent in an email attachment to sandy.berkovski+philsci@gmail.com by 23:59 on 5 January 2011. Your sheets must be saved either in HTML, or PDF, or plain text format. Each hour of the delay in the submission of exam sheets will entail a reduction of five points from the exam grade.


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On 04 Jan 2011, 15:22.