LÁSZLÓ E. SZABÓ Home Publications Courses Links CV Department Home

Philosophy of Science

(Hungarian title: Tudományfilozófia)

lecture course (in English)

Thu 18:00-19:30, online by Zoom

(If you haven't received the Zoom link and other info in a message through Neptun, just send me an email.)

First class: September 10

Codes:

BBN-FIL-315.01
BBV-020.24
BBN-FIL-401.07
BMA-FILD-401.07
BMVD-020.04
BMI-LOTD17-205E
BMA-LOTD17-205.1

Those who take this as a joint lecture+seminar course  with code BBN-FIL-315 also need to take the seminar course of code BBN-FIL-316.

The course provides an introduction to modern analytic philosophy of science. I shall focus on the central epistemological problems concerning empirical sciences like physics; and I shall discuss these issues on a formal/logical basis. Finally I sketch a naturalized philosophy of science based on what I call physico-formalist philosophy of mathematics -- an account for scientific knowledge, both a priori and empirical, within a purely physicalist ontology. 

Main topics:

  • characterization of scientific knowledge
  • science in social context
  • traditional methodology of empirical science
  • skepticism concerning empirical knowledge
  • truth of fact vs. truth of reasoning dichotomy
  • the Kantian tradition
  • philosophy of logic and mathematics
  • scientific theory as partially interpreted formal system
  • semantics of scientific theory
  • the physicalist approach
  • meaning and truth
  • holistic conclusions
  • operationalism and the constitutive a priori
  • fundationalism
  • empirical underdetermination
  • theory-ladenness of empiria
  • empirical—theoretical dichotomy
  • the problem of realism--antirelalism
  • scientific knowledge in the context of the natural world



Grading criteria, specific requirements


Oral exam from the material of the lectures. Video records and the slides of the lectures will be available. PhD students, in addition, have to write a 5-10 page critical essay (in English) in connection with the main theses I am proposing in the lecture course.

Required reading:
  1. Alexander Bird: Philosophy Of Science (Fundamentals of Philosophy), Routledge, 1998.
  2. L. E. Szabó: Meaning, Truth, and Physics, In G. Hofer-Szabó, L. Wroński  (eds.),   Making it Formally Explicit, European Studies in Philosophy of Science 6. (Springer International Publishing, 2017) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-55486-0_9. (Preprint: http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/14769/)

Suggested further reading:
  1. David A. Truncellito: Epistemology,  Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, https://www.iep.utm.edu/epistemo/
  2. Thomas Uebel: Vienna Circle, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2013 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.) (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/vienna-circle/)
  3. John Vickers: The Problem of Induction, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2013 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.) (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/induction-problem/)
  4. Robert Sinclair: Quine’s Philosophy of Science, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (http://www.iep.utm.edu/quine-sc)
  5. L. E. Szabó: Mathematical facts in a physicalist ontology, Parallel Processing Letters, 22 (2012) 1240009 (12 pages), DOI: 10.1142/S0129626412400099 [preprint]
  6. L. E. Szabó: Formal Systems as Physical Objects: A Physicalist Account of Mathematical Truth, International Studies in the Philosophy of Science, 17 (2003) pp. 117 – 125 (preprint: PDF)
  7. T. Kuhn: Scientific Revolutions, in The Philosophy of Science, R. Boyd et al. (eds.), MIT Press 1991, pp. 139-157.


2020-07-25
  

Records and slides


Exam dates:
Wednesdays 2PM
except December 23 and 30.

(In case you have no possibility to sign up with Neptun, It would be appreciated if you drop me an email a day or two before your coming.)

The Zoom link for the exam:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86494209152?pwd=
TUNkSjFQRGtlUlQxNyt6UmZWOVRyUT09




Hempel
Schlick


Hilbert
Fine


Ayer
Grünbaum


Gödel
Russell


Bell
Salmon


Carnap
Kant


Kuhn
Lakatos


Cartwright
Lewis

Hume
Reichenbach


Einstein
Friedman


Poincaré
Van Fraassen


Hahn
Mach


Putnam
Quine


Popper
Earman



 
2008