PHL2210 Thinking About Science
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Handbook entry- a brief description of the subject can be found in the handbook entry. The handbook also provides information about the unit leader, the semester and mode in which the unit is available, the contact hours and the assessment requirements.
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MUSO/Blackboard site - there is a MUSO/Blackboard site for this unit where assessment tasks, lecture notes and other unit resources will be posted. Once enrolled, students taking this unit are advised to check MUSO/Blackboard regularly.
Subject description:
The course begins with a case study in the history of astronomy: the "Copernican Revolution", and in particular the dispute between Galileo and the Pope over whether the evidence of the time was sufficient to establish that the Earth orbits the Sun. Close attention will be given to primary sources. With this case study as a reference-point, the course will study a classic text in recent philosophy of science: Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Students will explore ways in which historical records do or do not match the theories of philosophers like Popper and Kuhn.
The course will then apply these same techniques to two further case studies, this time from the biological and social sciences. First there will be a study of the "preformation theory of generation", which emerged around the time of Galileo; then there will be a study of the debate about innateness in modern Linguistics. Questions will be raised about the degree to which the sciences can be pursued in a rational manner, without ideological bias.
Textbook:
There is one prescribed text for this unit:
Thomas Kuhn (1996), The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. 3rd ed. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. ISBN 0–226–45808–3 (pbk).
This is the third edition of Kuhn. It is identical to the second (1970) edition apart from the addition of an index. The first (1962) edition is substantially different to the second and third editions. For this unit, you should use the second or third edition. It is available from the Monash University Bookshop, Clayton Campus, and often from second hand bookshops.