HS 443: History and Philosophy of Science
Instructor Name: Vikram Singh Sirola Course Name: History and Philosophy of Science (HS 433) Course Type: Theory Credits: 6 Pre-requisites: None Course Content: I. Nature of Science a) Distinction between science, non-science, and pseudoscience b) epistemological and metaphysical basis II. Scientific Progress a) Relationship between the natural and social sciences b) Karl Popper (critical rationalism) c) Thomas Kuhn (alternative notion of normal science) d) Imre Lakatos (methodology of research programmes) e) Paul Feyerabend (methodological libertarianism) III. Scientific Realism a) Truth Realism b) Entity Realism c) Non-Realism and Anti-realism debate d) Instrumentalism e) Structure Realism IV. Evolutionary Epistemology a) Karl Popper’s evolutionary epistemology V. Law of Nature and Scientific explanation a) Causality and indeterminism in physical theory b) Laws and universal truths c) Kind of facts Books: 1: John Losee, A historical Introducti...