PHIL523 STUDIES IN PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE I
| Course Code: | 2410523 |
| METU Credit (Theoretical-Laboratory hours/week): | 3 (3.00 - 0.00) |
| ECTS Credit: | 8.0 |
| Department: | Philosophy |
| Language of Instruction: | English |
| Level of Study: | Graduate |
| Course Coordinator: | Assoc.Prof.Dr. SAMET BAĞÇE |
| Offered Semester: | Fall or Spring Semesters. |
Course Objectives
COURSE OBJECTIVES: At the end of this course, students will have learned about the problem of normativity in naturalized epistemology, a good solution to this problem by Larry Laudan (his normative naturalizm) and objections to this solution. Furthermore, students will have also learned the problem of scientific theory change through time and Laudan solution with his normative naturalizm.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: In this course, we will trace Larry Laudan’s normative naturalism (“Normative naturalism is a view about the status of epistemology and philosophy of science; it is a meta-epistemology.”) throughout his naturalist philosophy of scientific change and his later publications together with the reviews by assenters and dissenters and his responses to these. Laudan’s normative naturalism is an important contribution to Quine’s project of naturalized epistemology and a solution to its normativity problem (perhaps to naturalization of any normative discipline, such as ethics) which was hinted at but never developed by Quine himself. (Laudan refused that Quine ever suggested any solutions at all while Quine completely ignored Laudan’s work. What a shame: they would have made a great team.) Anyway, normative naturalism, whoever leads it, is of great importance to both philosophers and scientists because the time has come for philosophy and science to become united again as they used to be.
Course Content
Discussion of various problems in contemporary philosophy of science. Critical assessment of recent philosophical views on these issues.
Course Learning Outcomes
Student, who passed the course satisfactorily will be able to understand fundamental philosophical issues normativity problem in naturalized epistemology as described under "Course Objectives".
Program Outcomes Matrix
| Level of Contribution | |||||
| # | Program Outcomes | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| 1 | Do independent academic research in order to be successful in academic studies. | ✔ | |||
| 2 | Have knowledge about contemporary philosophical issues, concepts and problems. | ✔ | |||
| 3 | Make original philosophical interpretations on the topic specialized. | ✔ | |||
| 4 | Have verbal and written presentation and effective communication skill. | ✔ | |||
| 5 | Do interdisciplinary readings and associate them to philosophical problems. | ✔ | |||
| 6 | Have knowledge about ethical code which is a requirement for doing academic research and publishing it. | ✔ | |||
0: No Contribution 1: Little Contribution 2: Partial Contribution 3: Full Contribution