Download PHIL 160: Introduction to Philosophy of Science

PHIL 160: Why Do We Believe in Quarks,
Evolution, and Other “Crazy” Things?
Professor:
Lynn Hankinson Nelson
Instructors:
Lars Enden
Joe Ricci
Jon Rosenberg
PHIL 160: Introduction to Philosophy of
Science
Course website:
http://faculty.washington.edu/lynnhank/PHIL160.html
Course description and requirements
Course topics and reading schedule, with links to
readings
Assignments, including on line quizzes for weeks 1-3
PHIL 160: Introduction to Philosophy of
Science
Philosophy of science:
What is science?
How is it different, if it is, from other enterprises or
institutions (fiction? religion? politics?)
What is its impact, historically and currently – on our
beliefs? lives?
PHIL 160
What is the kind of evidence that supports scientific
hypotheses and/or theories?
How strong is that evidence?
Suppose a theory includes objects (such as quarks) or
historical events/processes (such as geological or
evolutionary events/processes) that are not directly
observable? What kind of evidence supports such
theories and the objects/processes they include?
PHIL 160
What is science?
An enterprise concerned to develop theories that
explain and predict phenomena
Myths as “proto” science
Origin myths
Vegetation myths
Demeter, Persephone, and Hades
An explanation of the changes in seasons
And, as such, a prediction of future phenomena
How are myths different from science, if they are –
and/or when did genuine science emerge?
PHIL 160
 The ancient Greeks: What is everything made of and
how does the answer to this question explain change?
The one and many
Thales: Everything is made of water
Anaximander: Everything is made of “the boundless”
Anaximenes: Everything is made of air
Democritus: Everything is made of a-toms
Appearance and reality
 Natural explanations of phenomena
 Critical evaluation of such explanations

PHIL 160
Some major theories and episodes in the history of
science
Aristotelian/Ptolemaic physics and cosmology
The Copernican Revolution
Newtonian Physics
The Gradualist Theory in Geology
The Darwinian Revolution
The emergence of the social sciences, including
Anthropology
Einstein’s Special and General Relativity
The Big Bang Theory
The discovery of the structure of DNA
PHIL 160
Terminology
Epistemology: theory of knowledge
What is the source, what are the limits (if
any) of our knowledge?
Specific to science: how are theories
generated, how/why are they accepted,
what are their limits?
Ontology (Metaphysics): what there is
What do our theories assume there is?
What evidence is there for such entities?
PHIL 160
Terminology
1.
2.
Logic: The study of inferential relationships
Inference: Moving from (reasoning from)
one claim or set of claims to another
Examples:
Drug X has no harmful effects on rats
Rats and humans are in relevant and
significant ways similar
Therefore, probably Drug X will have no
harmful effects on humans
PHIL 160
Terminology
1.
2.
Logic: The study of inferential relationships
Inference: Moving from (reasoning from)
one claim or set of claims to another
Examples:
All humans are mortal.
Socrates is a human.
Therefore, Socrates is mortal.
PHIL 160
Terminology
Logic: The study of inferential relationships
Inference: Moving from one claim or set
of claims to another
In relation to science: what (if anything) is
the logic of “discovery” – what kind of
inferences lead to the discovery of
hypotheses of theories?
What is the logic of
PHIL 160: Introduction to Philosophy of
Science
A key notion: arguments
An argument is a set of sentences (at least two), one
of which is a claim being argued for (the
conclusion) and the other or others of which are
offered as reasons (or premises) to support it.
There are good arguments and bad arguments, and
good arguments for false claims as well as bad
arguments for true claims.
PHIL 160: Introduction to Philosophy of
Science
A valid argument:
All men are mortal.
Socrates is a man.
----------------------Therefore, Socrates is mortal.
Also a valid argument:
All men are purple
Socrates is a man
--------------------Socrates is purple
PHIL 160: Introduction to Philosophy of
Science
An invalid argument:
All men are mortal.
Socrates is mortal.
----------------------Therefore, Socrates is a man.
Valid arguments: it is not possible for the premises to
be true and the conclusion false.
Sound arguments: are valid AND have true premises
PHIL 160: Introduction to Philosophy of
Science
Leon Lederman
Nobel laureate in physics
An experimental physicist in the area of particle physics
Former director of Fermilab
The God Particle: If the Universe is the Answer, What is
the Question?
Still pursuing the questions that interested the ancient
Greeks
And addressing the question: what is the evidence for “unobservable” objects, events, and/or processes?