COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

Code of course: BMA-FILD-392.02, BBN-FIL18-402.44, BMA-FILD-402.160, BMA-LOTD17-207.03, BMI-LOTD17-207E.01, BBN-FIL18-316	
Title of course: Philosophy of science seminar	
Lecturer: Márton Gömöri 	
General aim of the course:
The aim of the course is to review and discuss the most important issues in philosophy of science, on the basis of classic and contemporary texts.
Required readings:
•	M. Schlick: Positivism and Realism, in The Philosophy of Science, R. Boyd et al. (eds.) The MIT Press, Boston 1992.
•	Hilary Putnam, Brains in a vat, http://ieas.unideb.hu/admin/file_2908.pdf
•	W. V. O. Quine: Two Dogmas of Empiricism, Philosophical Review 60 (1951) 20–43.
•	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/12891/)
•	L. Carroll:  "What the Tortoise Said to Achilles", http://www.ditext.com/carroll/tortoise.html
•	Selection from Plato's Meno. "The Dialogues of Plato, Volume 1: Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Meno, Gorgias, Menexenus", section "A Proof of Recollection" (pp. 164-171)
•	M. Colyvan: Indispensability Arguments in the Philosophy of Mathematics, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2004 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.). 
•	Arthur Fine: The Natural Ontological Attitude, in The Philosophy of Science, R. Boyd et al. (eds.) The MIT Press, Boston 1992.
•	W. V. O. Quine: Epistemology Naturalized, in: Ontological Relativity and Other Essays, Columbia University Press, New York.
•	Bruce MacLennan, "Synthetic Ethology - An Approach to the Study of Communication". In Artificial Life II: The Second Workshop on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems, Santa Fe Institute Studies in the Sciences of Complexity, proceedings Vol. X, edited by Christopher G. Langton, Charles Taylor, J. Doyne Farmer, and Steen Rasmussen.  Redwood City, CA: Addison-Wesley, 1992, pp. 631-658.
•	T. Kuhn: Scientific Revolutions, in The Philosophy of Science, R. Boyd et al. (eds.) The MIT Press, Boston 1992.
•	Barnes, B. and Bloor, D., (1982) "Relativism, Rationalism, and the Sociology of Knowledge" from Hollis, M. and Lukes, S., Rationality and relativism pp.21-47, Oxford: Basil Blackwell
•	Adolf Grunbaum: The Foundations of Psychoanalysis: A Philosophical Critique. 1984, Berkeley: University of California Press.

Grading criteria, specific requirements:
Preparing from readings + a 45-minute seminar talk + active participation in discussions