Paper 9
History of Philosophy of Science
Paper manager: Marina Frasca-Spada
| Michaelmas Term | |
|---|---|
| Primary Source Marina Frasca-Spada | Thu 10am (weeks 1–4) |
| Sources of Knowledge: Locke, Berkeley, Hume Marina Frasca-Spada, Stephen John | Tue 10am (weeks 1–8) |
| Kantian Philosophy and the Sciences Marina Frasca-Spada, Nick Jardine, Angela Breitenbach | Fri 2pm (weeks 1–8) |
| Lent Term | |
| Modern Philosophies of Science: Conventionalism, Positivism and Pragmatism Nick Jardine, Hasok Chang | Fri 11am (weeks 1–8) |
This paper looks at the origins of the philosophy of science and at its history in the modern age. The lecture courses trace changing views on the sources and features of science and our knowledge of nature. Topics covered include the empiricist approaches to knowledge of Locke, Berkeley and Hume and their legacy; Kantian philosophy and the sciences; the nineteenth-century Kantian heritage (Whewell, Helmholtz, etc); positivism and neo-positivism (Comte, Mill; Mach, Carnap, Neurath); conventionalism (Duhem, Poincaré); pragmatism (Peirce, Dewey, Putnam).
Primary source
David Hume, Treatise of Human Nature, Book 1, Part 4, Section VI: 'Of personal identity'
Marina Frasca-Spada (4 seminars, Michaelmas Term)
'Of personal identity' is a key expression of Hume's mitigated scepticism and part of his intriguing response to the eighteenth-century culture of feeling. Hume argues, on the basis of entirely sensible empiricist principles, that our own self, the vivid centre of our passions and thinking, can only be conceived as a bundle or collection of different, independent perceptions. His text is a classic: philosophically puzzling, textually intriguing, and widely influential on metaphysical discussions and on contemporary culture.
Lectures
Sources of Knowledge: Locke, Berkeley, Hume
Marina Frasca-Spada, Stephen John (8 lectures, Michaelmas Term)
Kantian Philosophy and the Sciences
Marina Frasca-Spada, Nick Jardine, Angela Breitenbach (8 lectures, Michaelmas Term)
Locke, Berkeley, Hume and Kant's philosophical reflections on the natural investigations of their time and their theorising on the nature and scope of human knowledge constitute a crucial part of the genealogy of our philosophy of science. These courses introduce their theories with an eye to their more recent reception.
Modern Philosophies of Science: Conventionalism, Positivism and Pragmatism
Nick Jardine, Hasok Chang (8 lectures, Lent Term)
This course will address some of the major nineteenth- and twentieth-century accounts of the nature, scope and methods of science. Emphasis will be placed on the historical and scientific contexts of the major conceptions of science and its methods – positivism, conventionalism, pragmatism, etc.
Preliminary reading
- Magee, B, The Great Philosophers (Clarendon Press, 2000), Dialogues 6–8
- Nadler, S (ed), A Companion to Early-Modern Philosophy (Blackwell, 2002), chapters 24 ('John Locke' by E McCann), 29 ('George Berkeley' by C McCracken), 32 ('David Hume' by M Frasca-Spada)
- Gardner, S, Kant and the 'Critique of Pure Reason' (Routledge, 1999)
- Brittan, GG, Kant's Theory of Science (Princeton University Press, 1978)
- Oldroyd, D, The Arch of Knowledge: An Introductory Study of the History of the Philosophy and Methodology of Science (Methuen, 1986)
- Aune, B, Rationalism, Empiricism and Pragmatism: An Introduction (Random House, 1970)
- Rorty, R, Pragmatism; Horwich, P, Conventionalism; Friedman, M, Logical Positivism, all in Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy