Graduate Courses
Fall 2016
HPS 2501 Philosophy of Science Core
Robert Batterman
M 9:30 am-12:00 pm
Cross-listed with PHIL 2600/10503
This course will focus on central topics in philosophy of science including explanation, confirmation, theory change, the meaning of theoretical terms, and scientific realism. We shall combine a reading of some classic texts with more recent work.
HPS 2522 Special Topics in History of Science: Galileo and All That
Paolo Palmieri
M 3:00 pm - 5:25 pm
The seminar focuses on Galileo's contributions to the cultural revolution of the seventeenth century, including the astronomical discoveries, the physics of falling bodies, the philosophy of nature, the harmony of religion and science. The seminar approaches Galileo in the broader humanistic, philosophical, mathematical and religious context of early modern Europe. This seminar traces his lasting legacy in the controversies that shaped the history and philosophy of modern science.
HPS 2533 Descartes
Peter K. Machamer
W 3:00 pm - 5:25 pm
Cross-listed with PHIL 2533/26941
Descartes' works are often treated as a unified, unchanging whole. We shall examine in detail some of the major Descartes’ texts (and Letters) that show how the philosopher's views, particularly in natural philosophy, actually change radically between his early and later works--and that any interpretation of Descartes must take account of these changes.
No changes in Descartes’ thought are more significant than those that occur between the major works The World (1633) and Principles of Philosophy (1644). Often seen as two versions of the same natural philosophy, these works are in fact profoundly different, containing distinct conceptions of causality and epistemology. We will trace the implications of these changes and others that follow from them, including Descartes' rejection of the method of abstraction as a means of acquiring knowledge, his insistence on the infinitude of God's power, and his claim that human knowledge is limited to that which enables us to grasp the workings of the world and develop scientific theories.
The readings will be mainly original Cartesian texts and letter in translation, and will relate to our recently published book Descartes’ Changing Mind (Princeton UP, 2009) as well as other recent work.
HPS 2633 Philosophy of Cognitive Science
Edouard Machery
W 9:30am - 12:00 pm
Cross-listed with PHIL 2633/29879
This course will survey the main philosophical questions provoked by cognitive science. Students will acquire a comprehensive grasp of the main issues in this field. Lectures and readings will be taken from artificial intelligence, psychology, philosophy, and neuroscience. We will discuss questions such as: Is the mind modular? Is the mind embodied and situated? Do we ascribe mental states by simulation or by means of a theory? What is consciousness? What are concepts?
HPS 2646 Topics in Hist & Phil of Biology - Teleology: History & Theory
James G. Lennox
H 2:00pm - 4:30 pm
Cross-listed with PHIL 2630/29952
This course traces debates about the validity, nature and scope of teleological explanation in the study of the living world. The course will begin with these debates as the originate and develop in Ancient Greek science and philosophy, looking at Plato’s Phaedo and Timaeus, Aristotle’s biological works, the Epicurean criticism and Galen’s defense of teleology. Among later developments that will be studied are the defense and us of teleological explanation among Early Modern neo-Galenic and neo-Aristotelian anatomists; the debates among professed ‘mechanical philosophers’ about the validity and scope of such explanations; the emergence of the debate between vitalism and mechanism in the 18th century; teleo-mechanism in the 19th century; debates about the place of teleology within evolutionary and developmental biology; and debates about the goal-directedness of development and behavior in the 20th century. The approach in the seminar will be ‘episodic’-i.e. this perennial debate will be studied in context at different moments in history, rather than attempting a ‘survey history’ of the topic.
HPS 2669 Realism
Mazviita Chirimuuta
T 2:00pm - 4:30 pm
Cross-listed with PHIL 2681/28970
Scientific realists think that on balance we have good reason to believe that our best scientific theories are at least probably and/or approximately true descriptions of how things stand in a mind-independent natural world. In this course we will begin by examining the classic statements and defenses of this view, including the so-called "Miracle" argument (viz. that the success of science would be a miracle if the theories used to achieve it were not at least approximately true). We will then consider some classic responses to this realist rationale from thinkers who articulate challenges to realism from such sources as the underdetermination of theories by evidence and the pessimistic induction over the history of science and who defend various alternatives to the realist position. We will then examine the most recent round of controversies surrounding scientific realism, considering versions of realism that have been revised in sophisticated ways to address the concerns of the objectors (e.g. entity realism and structural realism), as well as the most recent challenges that have been raised to these views. In the final part of the course we will discuss pragmatist alternatives to the traditional forms of realism and we will also focus on debates over realism regarding theories and posits in the special sciences.
Spring 2017
TBA