Philosophy of Science: Physics, Reality, and Beyond (Spring 2025)

Syllabus (Updated: Jan. 23)

Office hours: Wednesday 1-2:30pm; Tuesday 4:30-5:00pm

Book a meeting appointment

Recommended textbooks:

James Ladyman, Understanding Philosophy of Science.

Peter Godfrey-Smith, Theory and Reality: an introduction to the philosophy of science.

Class Schedule, Readings, and Main Goals

Jan. 23: Introduction

James Ladyman, Understanding Philosophy of Science, Introduction (p. 1-8).

Supplementary: Peter Godfrey-Smith, Theory and Reality: an introduction to the philosophy of science, p. 6-7.

• What are the main questions in philosophy of science?
• What is the distinction between metaphysics and epistemology?
• Get familiar with the syllabus and class requirements
• Vote and decide on topics for this semester

1. Jan. 28: What is Science? (and How to Read Philosophy)

David W. Concepción, “How to Read Philosophy” (p. 358-367).

Reginald Stuart, “Judge overturns Arkansas law on creationism”, in New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/1982/01/06/us/judge-overturns-arkansas-law-on-creationism.html.

Alternative: Michael Ruse, “Creation Science is not science” (p. 72-78).

• What is an argument?
• Learn how to read philosophy
• See an example of how a philosophical debate matters beyond academic settings and how to defend (or challenge) a view regardless of one's personal beliefs

2. Jan. 30: Deductive and Inductive Reasoning

James Ladyman, Understanding Philosophy of Science, Chapter 1 (p. 11-30).

• What are the criteria to evaluate an argument?
• What is the difference between validity and soundness?
• What is the distinction between deduction and induction?
• What is empiricism?

3. Feb. 4: Logical Positivism (setting the agenda)

Peter Godfrey-Smith, Theory and Reality: an introduction to the philosophy of science, Chapter 2.1-2.3 & 2.6.

Alfred J. Ayer, Language, Truth and Logic (1936), Chapter 1 ("The Elimination of Metaphysics", p. 45-61).

Supplementary: the rest of Chapter 2 in Theory and Reality.

Supplementary: Christopher Ray, “Logical Positivism”, in Newton-Smith (ed.) A Companion to the Philosophy of Science (p. 243-250).

• In what sense is Logical Positivism a form of empiricism?
• What is the analytic-synthetic distinction?
• What is the verification principle (or the verifiability theory of meaning)?

4. Feb. 6: The Problem of Induction

James Ladyman, Understanding Philosophy of Science, Chapter 2, p. 31-50.

Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy (1912), Chapter 6 ("On Induction", p.60-69).

Supplementary: David Hume, Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1777), Section IV-V.

• What is the problem of induction?
• What are some of its proposed solutions and their problems?

Week 4

5. Feb. 11: Popper on Falsification and Induction

James Ladyman, Understanding Philosophy of Science, Chapter 3, Sec. 3.1-3.3 (p. 62-76).

Karl Popper, Conjectures and Refutations (1963), Chapter 1, Sec. I-III (p. 43-54).

Karl Popper, The Logic of Scientific Discovery (1959), Chapter I (“A survey of some fundamental problems"), p. 27-33.

6. Feb. 13: Criticisms of Popper and Responses

James Ladyman, Understanding Philosophy of Science, Chapter 3, Sec. 3.4-3.6 (p. 77-91).

David Deutsch, The Fabric of Reality (1997), Chapter 7 (p. 141-166).

Supplementary: Popper, Conjectures and Refutations, Chapter 1, Sec. IV-X (p. 54-78.)

• What is Falsificationism?
• What is Popper's take on induction?
• What are some criticisms of Falsificationism?
• Does Popper solve the problem of induction?

7. Feb. 18: Lakatos on versions of Falsificationism

Peter Godfrey-Smith, Theory and Reality: an introduction to the philosophy of science, Chapter 7.2 (p.103-107).

Imre Lakatos, “Science and Pseudoscience”, in Philosophical Papers Volume 1 (1978), p.3-7.

Imre Lakatos, “Falsification and the Methodology of Scientific Research Programs”, in Philosophical Papers Volume 1 (1978), p.12-13, 25-28, & 31-40.

• What is Dogmatic Falsificationism?
• What is Naive (Methodological) Falsificationism?
• What is Sophisticated (Methodological) Falsificationism? (According to it, when do we reject a theory?)

8. Feb. 20: Lakatos on Scientific Research Programs

The rest of “Falsification and the Methodology of Scientific Research Programs”, p. 12-52; especially 3(a)-(b) if you haven't finished last time.

Alternative: W.H. Newton-Smith, "In Search of the Methodologist’s Stone" in The Rationality of Science (1981), p.82-99.

• What specifies a Scientific Research Program, according to Lakatos?
• What distinguishes a progressive program from a degenerate one?

James Ladyman, Understanding Philosophy of Science, Chapter 5, p. 129-142.

Paper Proposal Due (Paper Topics)

9. Feb. 25: Scientific Realism

James Ladyman, Understanding Philosophy of Science, Chapter 5, p. 154-159.

James Ladyman, Understanding Philosophy of Science, Chapter 7, p. 209-220.

Stathis Psillos, "In Defence of Scientific Realism" in Scientific Realism: How Science Tracks Truth (1999), p. 71-82 & 96-97.

Supplementary: Gilbert Harman, “Inference to the Best Explanation” in Philosophical Review (1965, p.88-95).

• What is scientific realism?
• What is the best argument for accepting scientific realism?
• What is inference to the best explanation?

10. Feb. 27: Criticisms of Scientific Realism

James Ladyman, Understanding Philosophy of Science, Chapter 8, p. 231-234 & 237-252.

Larry Laudan, "A Confutation of Convergent Realism", in Philosophy of Science (1981), Sec. 5-6 (p. 33-44).

(Please read the first part of Ladyman's before you read Laudan's. Or you can choose to read Laudan's full paper (which would be more challenging) and skip the textbook reading.)

Supplementary: Stathis Psillos, Scientific Realism: How Science Tracks Truth (1999), Chapter 5 & 6 (which provides some helpful historical background).

• What is the “pessimistic argument” against scientific realism, and how best can it be formulated?
• What examples from the history of science can be used to support the pessimistic argument?
• How should the realist respond to the pessimistic meta-induction?

Paper Outline Due

* Mar. 4: Writing Workshop

Jim Pryor, Guidelines on Writing a Philosophy Paper.

Supplementary: Steven Pinker, The Sense of Style: the thinking person's guide to writing in the 21st century (available as course reserve in the library).

11. Mar. 6: Constructive Empiricism

James Ladyman, Understanding Philosophy of Science, Sec. 6.2 (p. 185-193); Optional: Sec. 7.2.4 (p. 220-225).

Bas van Fraassen, The Scientific Image (1980), Chapter 1 (p. 6-40).

(Please read as much as you can. If you don't have enough time, focus on Sec. 1-3)

Supplementary: Musgrave, “Realism versus Constructive Empiricism”, in Paul Churchland and Clifford Hooker (eds.) Images of Science (1985, p. 197-221).

• What is constructive empiricism? How to defend it?
• What is the best case that can be made for rejecting constructive empiricism?

Paper Draft Due

We will continue learning about constructive empiricism; if we have time, we will also discuss structural realism. You can write your reading response for this session either on the reading below or Musgrave's reading above.

12*. Mar. 11: Structural Realism/Constructive Empiricism

James Ladyman, "What is Structural Realism?”, in Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science (1998, p. 409-422).

* Mar. 13: Writing Group Session

Read and comment on 2 paper drafts of your group members.

Paper Comments Due

Spring Break

13. Mar. 25: Philosophy of Computer Science/AI (guest speaker over Zoom)

Jack Copeland, Turing: Pioneer of the Information Age (extracts); optional for reading responses.

Mar. 27: Mid-Course Interview

Paper Submission Due

14. Apr. 1: Structural Realism

James Ladyman, Understanding Philosophy of Science, Sec. 8.4 (p. 260-262).

If you haven't, finish reading James Ladyman, "What is Structural Realism?”, in Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science (1998, p. 409-422).

If you have already read the above, pick and read one of the following supplementary readings or readings for next session on laws of nature:

Supplementary: John Worrall, “Structural Realism: The best of both worlds?”, in Dialectica (1989, p. 99-124).

Supplementary: David Wallace, "Stating Structural Realism: Mathematics-First Approaches to Physics and Metaphysics" in Philosophical Perspectives (2022).

• What is structural realism? How does it improve on standard scientific realism?
• What are some potential problems of structural realism?

15. Apr. 3: Laws of Nature

Helen Beebee, "The Non-Governing Conception of Laws of Nature" in Philosophy and Phenomenological Research (2000), p. 571-577.

David Lewis, "Humean Supervenience Debugged" in Mind (1994), Sec. 1 & 3.

John Carroll, “Laws of Nature,” in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Intro., Sec. 1-2 & 8-9.

• What is the Governing/Necessitarian Account of laws? What are the standard objections against it?
• What is the Best System Account of laws?
• What is Lewis's thesis of Humean Supervenience?

16. Apr. 8: Laws of Nature and Scientific Explanation

James Ladyman, Understanding Philosophy of Science, p. 196-202; Supplementary: p. 203-208.

Nancy Cartwright, “The Truth Doesn’t Explain Much”, in American Philosophical Quarterly (1980, p. 159-163).

Nancy Cartwright, “Do the Laws of Physics State the Facts?” in How the Laws of Physics Lie (1983), p. 53-61 & 72-73.

Supplementary: Marc Lange, "Who’s Afraid of Ceteris Paribus Laws? Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Them", in Erkenntnis (2002), p. 407-423.

• What is the deductive-nomological (DN) model of explanation?
• What are ceteris paribus laws?
• What can't ceteris paribus laws explain?

17. Apr. 10: Feminist Philosophy of Science

Helen Longino and Ruth Doell, "Body, Bias, and Behavior: A Comparative Analysis of Reasoning in Two Areas of Biological Science" (1983, p. 206-227)

Alison Wylie, "Feminism in Philosophy of Science: Making sense of Contingency and Constraint" in The Cambridge Companion to Feminism in Philosophy, p. 166-169 & 174-178.

Supplementary: Sarah Richardson, "Feminist philosophy of science: history, contributions, and challenges" in Synthese (2010).

• What are some case studies of male bias in science?
• What is feminist standpoint theory/epistemology?
• What is feminist empiricism?

18. Apr. 15: Science and Value

Helen Longino, Science as Social Knowledge: Values and Objectivity in Scientific Inquiry (1990), Chapter 4: Values and Objectivity, p. 63-82.

Supplementary: Heather Douglas, "Inductive Risk and Values in Science" in Philosophy of Science (2000, p. 559–579).

• What are the two senses of objectivity?
• What are the problems of these two senses of objectivity?
• What notion of objectivity of science does Longino propose?

Apr. 17: Study Day (no class)

Proposal for Final Project Due (Project Topics)

19. Apr. 22: Reduction and Emergence

Jaegwon Kim, "Making Sense of Emergence”, in Philosophical Studies (1999), p. 3-10.

Jerry Fodor, “Special Sciences (or: the disunity of science as a working hypothesis)”, in Synthese (1974, p. 97-114).

Supplementary: Elliott Sober, “The Multiple Realizability Argument Against Reductionism”, in Philosophy of Science (1999, p. 542-564).

• What is reduction?
• What is emergence?
• In what sense does emergence oppose reduction?
• What is Multiple Realizability (Fodor's objection against reduction)?

20. Apr. 24: The Direction of Time

David Albert, Time and Chance (2000), Chapter 1 (p. 1-21)

Supplementary: Time Maudlin, "On the Passing of Time" in Metaphysics Within Physics.

Supplementary: Sean Carroll's MINDSCAPE Podcast, Episode 158 (David Wallace on the Arrow of Time).

• What does it mean that time has a direction?
• What is time-reversal invariance?
• What is the tension between the two?

Self-Reflection

21. Apr. 29: Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics

Option 1: David Albert, Quantum Mechanics and Experience, Chapter 1; give it try for Chapter 4 if you can.

Option 2: Tim Maudlin, Philosophy of Physics: Quantum Theory, Chapter 2. (A bit technical, if you’d like a quick intro. to learn quantum mechanics.)

Option 3: “Measure for Measure: Quantum Physics and Reality” (90-minute video discussion at the World Science Festival). Online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdqC2bVLesQ

May 1: Final Project Presentation

Final Project Due

Final deadline for Paper Revision and supplementary material for the Final Project: May 9; grace period by May 12