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Spring 2004 Graduate Courses
HPS 500
HPS Colloquium 4:15-5:30 T (Howard)
1 Cr. Hr.
Graduate Students Only
Group Discussion by the HPS faculty and students of a prominent
recent work in the field of HPS and research presentations
by visiting scholars. Required course for HPS students in
first and second years of the HPS Program.
HPS 531
18th-Century Philosophy MW 11:45-1:00 (Joy and Ameriks)
3 Cr. Hr. Crosslist: PHIL 531
Permission Required
Ameriks recently observed that interpreters of Kant's theoretical
philosophy have a fatal attraction for two alternative programs
of reading his first Critique: (1) a strongly progressive
program that begins with pre-judgmental states, such as
ideas, and attempts from these to establish objective features
of the world; and (2) a strongly regressive program that
assumes the principles of Newtonian science and tries to
construct their metaphysical grounds. He argues instead
that Kant's transcendental idealism had the more modest
aim of defending a rationalist philosophy of autonomy, and
its principles did not depend for their relevance on taking
a stand against extreme skepticism. Ameriks regards the
principles of this modest Kantian system as a potent source
of insights about how the metaphysics of nature and the
metaphysics of morals are to be related.
Joy, by contrast, notes that some readers of Hume's Treatise
portray Hume himself as exhibiting a fatal attraction for
either extreme skepticism or bald naturalism. They have
even thought he succumbed to both--pitting the skeptical
Book I of the Treatise against his naturalistic first Enquiry,
or pitting Book I of the Treatise against the moral psychology
of its Books II-III. Joy proposes instead that Hume used
his arguments for extreme skepticism and bald naturalism
as the limits within which to define a modest naturalism,
one that was keenly aware of its own limitations. She therefore
turns to Hume for suggestions concerning how to articulate
a soft determinism and how to understand the supervenience
of normative attitudes on natural facts.
Ameriks and Joy will, in this seminar, jointly consider
whether his modest Kant and her modest Hume have something
significant in common. Readings from Hume will include A
Treatise of Human Nature (ed. Nidditch) and An Enquiry concerning
Human Understanding (ed. Nidditch). Readings from Kant will
include portions of his major works: the Prolegomena (ed.
Hatfield), the Critique of Pure Reason, the Groundwork (ed.
Korsgaard), and the Critique of Practical Reason (ed. Reath).
Seminar requirements: an oral report and two medium-length
papers.
HPS 569
Darwinian Revolution MW 9:30-10:45 (Sloan)
3 Cr. Hr. Crosslist: STV 469
Permission Required
This course will be an upper-division/graduate level survey
of the history of evolutionary biology, with particular
focus on the period from 1800-1930. The course will commence
with the historical inquiries into natural-historical science
in the wake of the Scientific Revolution, with particularly
focus on the eighteenth century synthesis of geology and
natural history by the French naturalist Buffon (1707-1788).
From this point examination will be made of the rise of
transformism in the nineteenth century, examining the importance
of Kant’s philosophy of nature and its extensions,
and the transformism debates of the pre-Darwinian period.
From this point the rise of Darwinism will be explored through
an examination of the origins of Darwinism into the post-Darwinian
debates, including the controversies over the place of human
beings in the Darwinian evolutionary scheme. This will conclude
with the synthesis of evolution and genetics in the so-called
“New Synthesis” of the 1930s. A final section
will focus on the history of science and theology issues
raised by Darwinian evolution.
Advanced graduate students in the HPS program will be expected
to complete a take-home midterm, and a research paper. New
HPS students and students from other departments will be
asked to complete two take-home midterms and a final. Auditors
are welcome, but must register for the course. Student presentations
will help introduce some of the materials. Advanced STV
minor undergraduates may take the course with the instructor’s
permission.
Texts: D. Depew and B. Weber, Darwinism Evolving
(MIT 1994)(used both semesters)
Radick and Hodge, Cambridge Companion to Darwin
( CUP, 2003)
P. Bowler, Evolution: The History of an Idea (Johns
Hopkins)
P. Bowler, The Eclipse of Darwinism, (Johns Hopkins,
1983)
Darwin, Origin of Species and selections from Descent
of Man
A Reader of primary and secondary source will supplement
the above materials.
HPS 588
HOPOS from the Scientific Revolution to 1900 TTH 2:00-3:15
(Howard and Jauernig)
3 Cr. Hr. Crosslist: PHIL 588
Permission Required
Much of the history of philosophy from the early modern
period through the nineteenth century can be written as
the history of philosophical reactions to the development
of modern science, especially the physics of Newton and
Maxwell, but to some degree also the chemistry, biology,
physiological psychology, and sociology that came into their
own in the nineteenth century. What was the epistemic basis
of this new scientific knowledge? What was the proper method
of science? What were the scope and limits of this new science?
This course will trace the main themes in the development
of the philosophy of science during this period. After reviewing
the Cartesianism against which subsequent generations react,
we will look at Newton and early responses to Newton on
the part of Locke, Huyghens, Leibniz, Hume, Kant, and Reid.
In the nineteenth century, we will chart the rise of distinctive
schools of thought as the philosophy of science becomes
conscious of itself as a distinct area within philosophy,
including the positivism of Comte, the inductivism of Mill,
the hypothetico-deductivism of Herschel and Whewell, the
Scot's school's emphasis on the fundamental role of models
in science, and the neo-Kantianism of Helmholtz. As we reach
the threshold of the twentieth century we will pay special
attention to such precursors of logical empiricism as Mach,
Poincaré, and Duhem.
The readings will be a mix of primary and secondary sources.
HPS 590
Economics & Philosophy TH 11:00-12:15 (Sent)
3 Cr. Hr. Crosslist: ECON 515/PHIL 592
Permission Required
What does it mean to do good research in economics? If
you thought the answer to this question is straightforward,
you will be in for a surprise! The intention of the course
is to problematize such notions as "Prediction is the
goal of economics" or "There is progress in economics"
or "Assumptions in economics should be (un)realistic."
In order to do this, we will explore literature on philosophy
of science, sociology of scientific knowledge, and economic
theory. In particular, the course has three objectives.
First, I want to encourage you to be skeptical of "received"
philosophy of science, or at least to recognize that it
is relative. Not only are philosophers of science context-bound,
but the vast majority have limited themselves to discussion
with other philosophers, so that what we get is not philosophy
of science but the ideas which philosophers have about each
other's ideas about science. Philosophy of science is thus
twice removed from science itself. This does not imply that
we should abandon philosophy of science, but rather that
a more modest appraisal should be made of what it can be
expected to achieve. We need to study our own discipline
from the inside, as it were, trying out at the same time
the insights that philosophers have. Hence, the first part
of the course will be devoted to analyzing the philosophy
of science literature and its relationship with methodological
issues in economics.
If we deny the existence of universal standards and the
relevance of trends in orthodox philosophy of science for
the practice of science, what is the alternative? As the
influence of the discredited a priori philosophies has faded,
philosophers, sociologists, and historians have sought to
extend and modify their work in order to produce, for the
first time, a genuine sociology of scientific knowledge.
This brings us to the second course objective, which is
to examine the claim that the social dimensions of science
must be taken seriously. We will discuss the attempts by
sociologists to look closely at the ways in which scientists
construct their accounts of the world and at the ways in
which variations in social context influence the formation
and acceptance of scientific assertions.
Finally, we will explore some special topics in economics.
Is economics "just" discourse? What does prediction
in economics mean? What is so special about econometrics?
Do we replicate in economics? Is there a role for experimentation
in economics? What is meant by economic rationality? What
is the role of methodological individualism in economics?
How do we model economic agents? What is the proper domain
of economics? Is it inappropriate to use markets and market
reasoning in certain areas? Can economics be studied in
isolation from moral and cultural presuppositions?
HPS 599
Thesis Direction (Howard)
Thesis direction for terminating Master's students.
HPS 600
Non-resident Thesis Direction (Howard)
Thesis direction for terminating Master's students.
HPS 697
Directed Readings
Directed Readings carried out under individual HPS faculty
supervision.
HPS 699
Research and Dissertation (Howard)
Dissertation research for Ph.D. students.
HPS 700
Nonresident Dissertation Research (Howard)
Dissertation research for Ph.D. students. |
