Philosophy and History of Science Course

Philosophy. Study the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality and existence.

COVID-19 update: arrangement of our courses

We are now delivering courses online and in-person. Please check the delivery format of each class before enrolling.

Please note that course materials (excluding prescribed texts) are shared electronically within 48 hours of course commencement. Printing is not available.

The birth of Western philosophy and the ‘scientific’ study of nature begin together in the pre-Socratic Greek world. In this course we will take a philosophical trip from the beginnings of Western science, through the Renaissance and Modern philosophy to the present. We will uncover the principles behind the discoveries of figures such as Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, Karl Popper, and many contemporary philosophers of science. The interrelation between science and society will be weaved together throughout the course.

Aims

The aim of the course is to engage you in a lively discussion on what ‘science’ is, how it works and how it differs from other forms of knowledge such as religion. Science affects many areas of life including how humans understand themselves in relation to the natural world, and their place in the universe.

Outcomes

By the end of this course, you should be able to:

• understand the relationship between the history of science and the beginnings of philosophy
• read extracts from the key theorists both ancient, modern and contemporary on the ideas behind the exploration of the natural world
• relate their ideas to some of our contemporary debates about the role of the sciences in our world
• discuss many of the ideas on the relationship between philosophy of science and its relation to broader issues of politics and society
• research further on issues relating to new ideas in biology, ecology and physics.

Content

Introduction to the philosophy of science

The course will begin with a general introduction to the theory of philosophy of science as a discipline. A fundamental principle of the course is that the prevailing science of a culture affects their broader set of ideologies, political theories and social arrangements.

Ancient Greece

The ancient Greeks were the first mathematicians and scientists of the West. Thinkers such as, Anaximander, Pythagoras, Empedocles and Democritus attempted to make sense of the world by studying the evidence they found in it. Leucippus and Democritus proposed a fundamental Atomism (from Greek ἄτομον, atomon) of indivisible particles composing all matter.

Aristotle's theory of reality

Aristotle insisted that scientific knowledge (Ancient Greek: ἐπιστήμη, Latin: scientia) is knowledge of necessary causes. He and his followers would not accept mere description or prediction as science. Most characteristic of Aristotle's causes is his final cause, the purpose for which a thing is made. He came to this insight through his biological researches, such as those of marine animals at Lesbos. 

Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543); Francis Bacon (1561 - 1626); Galileo (1564 - 1642)

Copernicus not only transformed Astronomy but began a ‘revolution’ which eventually changed the way in which humans understood their place and role in the universe.
Whilst there was no split between science and philosophy during this Early Modern period, Bacon laid the foundation stone for the divergence of the two disciplines. As a side effect, his work also planted the seed of the divisions between science and theology. Galileo took the Baconian views of science to another level, further emphasising the need for both empiricism and rationalist thinking. 

Sir Isaac Newton (1642- 1726) to Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

Newton formulated the laws of motion and universal gravitation that formed the dominant scientific viewpoint for centuries until it was superseded by the Einstein’s theory of relativity. 

Karl Popper

Karl Popper is generally regarded as one of the greatest philosophers of science of the twentieth century. He was also a social and political philosopher of considerable stature, a self-professed critical-rationalist, best known for his theory of Falsification in science. 

Contemporary philosophy of science

The second half of the course will consider a range of different views from the philosophy of physics, biology and environmental theory. Two theorists chosen are: the Italian theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli (Reality Is Not What It Seems: The Journey to Quantum Gravity) and Swedish-American cosmologist Max Tegmark (Our Mathematical Universe: My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality). Both are respected in their field but also write for a broader audience. Both have the ability to write in an accessible way for a non-specialist audience.

Philosophy of biology

The growth of philosophical interest in biology over the past forty years reflects the increasing prominence of the life sciences generally in the same period. The first question is how to define ‘life’, this question is not as easy to answer as one might think.
Sandra Mitchell has written many books and articles on epistemological issues in biology. She is the Distinguished Professor, University of Pittsburgh, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, 2000-present. The course will look at her essay: “Exporting Causal Knowledge in Evolutionary and Developmental Biology”.

Methodologies in science

Throughout the course we will be considering issues of methodology. Methodology concerns how evidence is collected; what counts as evidence; how data is organised and how it is represented. Professor of Philosophy of science, Angela Potochnick is a new voice in this area. Her book Idealization and the Aims of Science, has been widely discussed. Potochnick argues that idealisation is a necessary element of all science, she offers case studies from a number of branches of science to demonstrate the ubiquity of idealisation.

Intended audience

Anyone with a general interest in philosophy and the course themes.

Prerequisites

None

Delivery style

Lecture/discussion

Delivery mode

Online via the platform Zoom

Materials

Course notes are provided for each session. All course materials are provided electronically, via Dropbox. Printing services are not provided.

Recommended reading

There is no prescribed text for this course. The following bibliography contains primary texts used in the course and texts for further study:

• Agassi, Joseph, 2014, Popper and His Popular Critics: Thomas Kuhn, Paul Feyerabend and Imre Lakatos (SpringerBriefs in Philosophy), Cham: Springer International Publishing.
• Alamuiti, M. M., 2021, Critical Rationalism and the Theory of Society: Critical Rationalism and the Open Society (Volume 1), London: Routledge.
• Barker, G., 2015. Beyond Biofatalism: Human Nature for an Evolving World, New York: Columbia University Press.
• Graham, D. W. (ed.), 2010, The Texts of Early Greek Philosophy: The Complete Fragments and Selected Testimonies of the Major Presocratics, two volumes, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Potochnick, A, 2018, Idealization and the Aims of Science, University of Chicago Press.
• Peltonen, M. (ed.), 1996, The Cambridge Companion to Bacon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Rovelli, C. 2023, Anaximander: And the Birth of Science, Penguin Random House.
  - 2018. The Order of Time, Penguin Random House.
  - 2016, Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, Penguin Random House.
• Snobelen, S, (2005) “ ‘The True Frame of Nature’: Isaac Newton, Heresy, and the Reformation of Natural Philosophy”, in Heterodoxy in Early Modern Science and Religion, J. Brooke and I. Maclean (ed.), Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 223–262.
  - 2009, “Isaac Newton and the Eighteenth Century”, special issue, Enlightenment and Dissent, 25.
• Taylor, C. C. W., (1999), The Atomists: Leucippus and Democritus, Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
• Tegmark, M (2014) Our Mathematical Universe: My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality, Penguin Random House