Paper 13_3 in the BBS Major Subject History and Philosophy of Science and Medicine
Lectures are held in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science.
| Michaelmas Term | |
|---|---|
| Philosophy of the Biomedical Sciences: Concepts and Evidence Tom McClelland (4), Stephen John (4) |
Tue 4pm (weeks 1–8) |
| Inference and Explanation Marta Halina (4) |
Wed 12noon (weeks 5–8) |
| Lent Term | |
|---|---|
| Philosophy of Psychiatry Matt Farr (4) |
Tue 4pm (weeks 1–4) |
| Philosophy of Cognitive Science Tom McClelland (4) |
Tue 4pm (weeks 5–8) |
| Inference and Explanation (continued) Marta Halina (4) |
Wed 12noon (weeks 5–8) |
This paper provides students with the conceptual tools to explore the epistemological challenges which arise in pursuing medical research. The core lecture series explores some of the philosophical issues which arise in medical research, ranging from the definition of health to the strengths and limitations of Evidence Based Medicine. This close focus is supplemented with study of philosophical issues in neighbouring scientific disciplines, and with a broader grounding in core concepts in the philosophy of science. Students who take this course will gain a unique insight into how medical science relates to other sciences, its strengths and its limitations.
Aims and learning outcomes
- to acquaint students with fundamental issues in the metaphysics and epistemology of medicine, psychiatry and epidemiology;
- to provide students with an understanding of the relationship between medicine and other sciences, including biology and cognitive science;
- to introduce students to the major tools of philosophical analysis;
- to encourage students to reflect on the ways in which medical knowledge is and ought to be generated.
Lectures
Philosophy of the Biomedical Sciences: Concepts and Evidence
Tom McClelland, Stephen John (8 lectures, Michaelmas Term)
Medicine is among our most important institutions. Though its aim is practical, medicine is shot through with conceptual commitments and theoretical assumptions, its basic tools rely on causal hypotheses supported to varying degrees by inductive inferences, and medical research is developed in a complex political and economic nexus. Thus medicine is a prime subject for philosophical analysis. This eight-week sequence of lectures will examine conceptual, normative, epistemological, methodological, metaphysical and political questions underlying medicine and medical science.
Inference and Explanation
Marta Halina (8 lectures, Michaelmas & Lent Terms)
This course explores the nature of scientific explanation and inference and their central role in our understanding of the natural world. We will critically examine different philosophical accounts of explanation, including the influential covering-law model and various causal approaches. Through readings and discussions, we will investigate what distinguishes a good explanation from a bad one, how explanation contributes to scientific understanding, and how factors such as audience and background knowledge influence explanatory practice. We will then turn to the nature of scientific inference, focusing on issues related to causal inference, analogical reasoning, and inference to the best explanation. This course offers a foundation in key issues in the philosophy of science.
Philosophy of Psychiatry
Matt Farr (4 lectures, Lent Term)
Philosophy of psychiatry stands at the intersection of philosophy of medicine, philosophy of psychology/cognitive science, and philosophy of mind. This course considers various topics within philosophy of psychiatry, focusing on how the study of psychopathology interacts with the study of mind and brain. We will consider several key questions, including: What are mental disorders? Are they disorders of mind, brain or society? How are conceptualisations of mental disorder influenced by culture? How are they influenced by developments in neuroscience? Is there such a thing as a 'normal' mind? What can psychopathology tell us about 'normal' mental functioning?
Philosophy of Cognitive Science
Tom McClelland (4 lectures, Lent Term)
The cognitive sciences invite a variety of pressing philosophical questions. What is the mind and how does it fit into the natural order? How should the mind be studied and what methodological problems does it present? When, if at all, should we attribute mental states to non-human animals or to AI? What value do different kinds of mind have and how should this shape our ethical conduct? We explore how these questions play out in relation to four key topics: folk psychology, consciousness, the self and extended cognition.
Preliminary reading
- Cartwright, Nancy, The Dappled World (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999)
- Clark, Andy, Mindware: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Cognitive Science (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001)
- Cooper, Rachel, Psychiatry and Philosophy of Science (London: Routledge, 2007)
- Godfrey-Smith, Peter, Philosophy of Biology (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014)
- Kosso, Peter, Appearance and Reality (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998)
- Murphy, Dominic, Psychiatry in the Scientific Image (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2006)
- Rosenberg, Alex, and Daniel McShea, Philosophy of Biology: A Contemporary Introduction (London: Routledge, 2008)
- Solomon, Miriam, Making Medical Knowledge (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015)
- Stegenga, Jacob, Care and Cure: An Introduction to Philosophy of Medicine (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2018)