Philosophy of Science

In English: Wed 16:00-17:30, Room 129 (Múzeum krt. 4/i)
In Hungarian: Csütörtök 18:00-19:30, 129. (Múzeum krt. 4/i)

Codes:

English:




Those who take this lecture course  with code BBN-FIL-315 also need to take the seminar course of code BBN-FIL-316.

The course provides an introduction to modern analytic philosophy of science. I shall focus on the central epistemological problems concerning empirical sciences like physics; and I shall discuss these issues on a formal/logical basis. Finally I sketch a naturalized philosophy of science based on what I call physico-formalist philosophy of mathematics -- an account for scientific knowledge, both a priori and empirical, within a purely physicalist ontology. 

Main topics:

• characterization of scientific knowledge
  
• science in social context
  
• traditional methodology of empirical science
  
• skepticism concerning empirical knowledge
  
• truth of fact vs. truth of reasoning dichotomy
  
• the Kantian tradition
  
• philosophy of logic and mathematics
  
• scientific theory as partially interpreted formal system
  
• semantics of scientific theory
  
• the physicalist approach
  
• meaning and truth
  
• holistic conclusions
  
• operationalism and the constitutive a priori
• fundationalism
  
• empirical underdetermination
• theory-ladenness of empiria
• empirical—theoretical dichotomy
• the problem of realism--antirelalism
  
• scientific knowledge in the context of the natural world
  

Grading criteria, specific requirements


Oral exam from the material of the lectures. Video records and the slides of the lectures will be available.

Required reading:

1. Alexander Bird: Philosophy Of Science (Fundamentals of Philosophy), Routledge, 1998.
   
2. L. E. Szabó: Meaning, Truth, and Physics, In G. Hofer-Szabó, L. Wroński  (eds.),   Making it Formally Explicit, European Studies in Philosophy of Science 6. (Springer International Publishing, 2017) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-55486-0_9. (Preprint: http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/14769/)
   

Suggested further reading:

3. David A. Truncellito: Epistemology,  Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, https://www.iep.utm.edu/epistemo/
   
4. Thomas Uebel: Vienna Circle, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2013 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.) (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/vienna-circle/)
   
5. John Vickers: The Problem of Induction, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2013 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.) (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/induction-problem/)
   
6. Robert Sinclair: Quine’s Philosophy of Science, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (http://www.iep.utm.edu/quine-sc)
   
7. L. E. Szabó: Mathematical facts in a physicalist ontology, Parallel Processing Letters, 22 (2012) 1240009 (12 pages), DOI: 10.1142/S0129626412400099 [preprint]
   
8. L. E. Szabó: Formal Systems as Physical Objects: A Physicalist Account of Mathematical Truth, International Studies in the Philosophy of Science, 17 (2003) pp. 117 – 125 (preprint: PDF)
   
9. T. Kuhn: Scientific Revolutions, in The Philosophy of Science, R. Boyd et al. (eds.), MIT Press 1991, pp. 139-157.
   

PhD students, in addition, must write a 5-10 page critical essay (in English) in connection with the main theses I am proposing in the lecture course.