Philosophy of Science

Modul programe:
Philosophy of science has developed into an autonomous field in the first part of the 19th century and undergone a remarkable change through its interface with logic during the 20th century. In the last 50 years, it shifted from a theoretical analysis of the structure of scientific theories to the reconstruction of the scientific change with particular reference to the dynamics of the competition amongst rival research programmes. Moreover, methodology and philosophy of science have split into sub-disciplines investigating the most relevant issues coming from particular sciences like cosmology, physics, biology, neurosciences, psychology, medicine, economics, etc. As a result, a plurality of conceptions and trends about methods and the different forms of scientific explanation is emerged. In this context, the growing importance of the theory of probabilities for the philosophy of science will be shown as well.
Main topics: Scientific explanation and logic; Inductive sciences; Fallibilism; Criticism and the growth of knowledge; Convention; Demarcation between science and metaphysics; The nature of observation; Experiments, scientific objects and objectivity; Scientific change: revolutions and the methodology of the scientific research programmes; Probabilities and (Bayesian) explanations; Open science in a free society.