Philosophy 355 Homepage

SYLLABUS

IMPORTANT DATES

• First Paper Due: Oct. 19
• Midterm: Nov. 9
• Second Paper Due: Dec. 7

TESTS

• Study Questions (updated 18/11/06)
• Practice Problems: Bayes' Theorem
• Sample Answers to Midterm

PAPER ASSIGNMENTS

• How Not to Plagiarize
• First Paper Assignment - Due Oct. 19, in class
• Second Paper Assignment - Due Dec. 7, in class

READINGS

• Objectivity and Science vs. Pseudoscience
  
  
  • Week 1: Positivism
    • Moritz Schlick, "Positivism and Realism''
    • A.J. Ayer, excerpts from Language, Truth, and Logic
      
      
  • Week 2: Falsificationism
    • Karl Popper, excerpt from The Logic of Scientific Discovery
    • David Hume, excerpt from An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
    • Wesley Salmon, "An Encounter with David Hume" (optional)
      
      
  • Week 3: Kuhn and Scientific Revolutions
    • Thomas Kuhn, "Logic of Discovery or Psychology of Research"
    • Imre Lakatos, "Science and Pseudoscience" (optional)
    • Thagard, "Why Astrology is a Pseudoscience"
      
      
  • Week 4: Feminism and Objectivity
    • Janet Radcliffe Richards, "Why Feminist Epistemology Isn't"
    • Kathleen Okruhlik, "Gender and the Biological Sciences"
      
      
• Scientific Reasoning: Induction, Underdetermination, and Confirmation
  
  
  • Week 5: The Nicod Criterion
    • Carl Hempel, "Studies in the Logic of Confirmation"
    • Class Notes, "Three Puzzles of Confirmation"
      
      
  • Week 6: Probability Primer
    • Class notes on the basics of probability
    • Worksheet of basic probability problems
    • Class notes on Bayes's theorem
    • Worksheet on Bayes's theorem
      
      
  • Weeks 7-9: Quantitative Confirmation
    • My notes from October 31
    • Ian Hacking, Chapter 11 of "An Introduction to Probability and Inductive Logic"
    • My notes from Nov 02
      
      
• Dreams and Psychoanalysis
  • Week 10: Freud on Dreams
    • Freud, "The Wolf Man" (excerpt from History of an Infantile Neurosis)
      • Starts on page 29, ignore pages 27 & 28.
    • Grunbaum, "The Liabilities of Freudian Psychoanalysis"
    • Erwin, "Psychoanalysis: How Firm is the Evidence?"
      
      
• Realism and Anti-Realism
  
  
  • Week 11: Constructive Empiricism
    • van Fraassen, "Arguments Concerning Scientific Realism"
      
      
  • Week 12: Convergent Realism
    • Larry Laudan, "A Confutation of Convergent Realism"