The John J. Reilly Center

Program in History and Philosophy of Science

Courses Fall 2000

HPS 500

HPS Colloquium 4:15-5:30 T (Howard)

1 Cr. Hr.

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.

Introduction to the History of Science 4:15-5:30 H (Crowe)

1 Cr. Hr.

This course is intended as a required supplement for HPS graduate students taking either History 503 (Proseminar) or Philosophy 501 (Proseminar). It serves as a prerequisite for further graduate course work in history and philosophy of science. Concentration will be on the special methodological and historiographical issues in the history and philosophy of science, including examination of the post-Kuhnian traditions in the history and philosophy of science, introduction to research techniques, and guest appearances by HPS faculty. Readings will be drawn from current periodical literature in the history and philosophy of science.

The Darwinian Revolution 9:30-10:45 TH (Sloan)

3 Cr. Hrs. Crosslist: HIST 569, PHIL 561

Permission Required

This course will form the first portion of a two-semester sequence taught serially by Sloan and Lenny Moss of Philosophy in the history and philosophy of biology. In the spring semester Moss will offer Philosophy of Biology (Philosophy 583/HPS 583.) This year the sequence will concentrate on the general issue of evolution and development. Either course can be taken separately, or the two may be taken as a sequence. Efforts will be made to maintain a coherent discourse between the two units, and in both courses issues of history and philosophy of science will be considered.

The first semester course will develop a historical focus on the main events in the development of evolutionary transformism up to the 1930s. Beginning with a section examining selected aspects of Aristotle's biological theory as a foundation for discussion of the notions of development, form, and teleology in the living world, the course will then examine the historical inquiries into functional and natural-historical science in the wake of Newton with particular focus on the synthetic work of the French naturalist Buffon (1707-1788). From this point examination will be made of the interplay of development and transformism in the nineteenth century, examining the importance of Kant's philosophy of nature and its extensions, and the transformism debates that pitted Jean Baptiste Lamarck and Etienne Geoffroy St. Hilaire against the critiques of Georges Cuvier and Richard Owen. From this point the rise of Darwinism will be explored through the early Transformist Notebooks, the published works, and the post-Darwinian debates, including the controversies over the place of human beings in the Darwinian evolutionary scheme.

A third unit will explore the debates over embryological development, natural selection, and neo-Lamarckian theories of evolution in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century. The Moss course will commence with aspects of these issues.

Graduate students in the HPS program will be expected to complete a take home midterm, a research paper, and a written final. 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.

Texts: D. Depew and B. Weber, Darwinism Evolving (MIT 1994)(used both semesters)

J. Gayon , Darwinism' s Struggle for Survival (Cambridge, 1998)

P. Bowler, The Eclipse of Darwinism, (Johns Hopkins, 1983)

E. Larson, Summer for the Gods (Basic Books, 1997)

Primary and secondary source Reader and pre-circulated lectures by P. R. Sloan

Philosophy of Science 2:00-3:15 TH (Howard)

3 Cr. Hr. Crosslist: PHIL 581

A survey of major problems, movements, and thinkers in twentieth-century philosophy of science. The course begins with a look at the historical background to logical empiricism, its rise to prominence, and its early critics, such as Popper. After a study of major problems in the neo-positivst tradition, such as confirmation, explanation, and the nature of scientific laws, historicist critiques of neo-positivism, chiefly Kuhn's will be studied next, followed by a consideration of the realism-instrumentalism debate. The course concludes with a brief look at new perspectives, such as social constructivism and feminist philosophy of science. Requirements: Students will write mid-term and final essay examinations and a fifteen-page term paper on a topic to be chosen in consultation with the instructor.

Readings: Thomas S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 2nd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970. Additional readings will be contained in a course packet.

Methodology: Economics and Philosophy 2:00-3:15 TH (Sent)

3 Cr. Hr. Crosslist: ECON 515

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 at 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.

The second course objective, 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 themselves 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? Cam economics be studied in isolation from moral and cultural perspectives?

Thesis Direction (Howard)

Thesis direction for terminating Master's students.

Nonresident Thesis Direction (Howard)

Thesis direction for terminating Master's students.

Directed Readings

Directed Readings carried out under individual HPS faculty supervision.

Research and Dissertation (Howard)

Dissertation research for Ph.D. students.

Nonresident Dissertation Research (Howard)

Dissertation research for Ph.D. students.