SUPPLEMENTARY SUBJECT
HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
This course gives you the opportunity of standing back from the work of the laboratory and considering, in general terms, the history of science and the nature and methods of the scientific enterprise. It offers an introduction to styles of thought and analysis not encountered in normal scientific studies, and a training in writing essays with a different structure and purpose. We believe that by adding a distinctive dimension to undergraduates‚ experience, the subject can be illuminating to those going on to become professional scientists, while parts of it will be especially useful as a foundation for careers in school-teaching, government, the media, or industry.
The course is structured around sixteen lectures distributed over Michaelmas and Hilary terms, together with a programme of tutorials or classes (for which, over the two terms, up to eight essays or brief oral presentations will be required). The examination consists of a single three-hour paper, set at the end of Hilary term. The results of the examination will be available to the Finals‚ Examiners, and the fact that you have achieved a pass in the supplementary subject will be published in the class list, which will also identify those candidates who are awarded a distinction. Under no circumstances can your performance in the supplementary subject pull you down in the final classification.
The course begins, in Michaelmas Term, with an historical survey of the development of new sciences, new increasingly sophisticated scientific methods, and new conceptions of nature in both the physical sciences and the life sciences. The chief architects of a series of revolutions in science to be studied include Galileo, Francis Bacon, Harvey, Descartes, Newton, Lavoisier, Lyell, and Darwin. The latter part of the course, in Hilary Term, is more explicitly concerned with philosophy. Lectures and tutorials on scientific method and on the validity of scientific knowledge treat the thoughts of philosophers on these subjects, such as Carnap, Quine, and Kuhn. We try to preserve as much flexibility as possible in the orientation of your work. Topics on which you may wish to focus your reading and essays include the work of individual scientists, in particular of those mentioned above, and more general questions such as the nature of the problem of induction, hypothesis testing, and the role of chance and determinism in science.
A good introduction to both the historical and the philosophical aspects of the course is provided by Thomas Kuhn, The structure of scientific revolutions (first published in 1962, but more recent editions are available in paperback form). This book is strongly recommended for purchase if you are interested in taking the course.
Anyone wishing to enrol for this Supplementary Subject should come to the first lecture, to be given in the Tanner Room, Linacre College in Michaelmas Term, date to be advised early in MT. It is especially important to be present at the first lecture, immediately after which tutorial groups for the term will be arranged. Please contact Prof. P. Corsi (pietro.corsi@history.ox.ac.uk) should you need to.
The booklet accompanying the course as it was taught in 2008-09 can be consulted at: http://www.history.ox.ac.uk/hsmt/courses_reading/documents/current_hps_booklet.pdf
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