Some of the central philosophical problems of science highlighted by the success, methods and social settings of modern science.

Topics and problems to be covered throughout the course will be selected from the following list –not all topics may be covered in any one semester:

* What is special about the scientific method? What constitutes a scientific approach to investigating the world? Why be scientific? Science vs. pseudo-science or good vs. bad science.

* Does science make inductive assumptions? Does it simply generalise from the cases already investigated? If so, how are such inductive assumptions to be justified?

* Can evidence ever establish scientific theories? If not, what exact role does empirical testing play in science? The role of experiment in the scientific method; the Duhem-Quine Problem; the empirical basis of science; weight of evidence and predictive success.

* Are there any special problems concerned with testing statistical or probabilistic theories?

* Scientific explanation; what are ad hoc explanations and moves? Why should they be avoided in science?

* What is the status of presently accepted scientific theories? The problem of theory-choice (or theory-change) and scientific rationality. What are revolutionary-theory-changes in science? How do revolutionary-theory-changes in science affect the view that science consists of a body of established truths? And how does the phenomenon of revolutionary changes in science affect traditional notions of scientific rationality? Do scientific revolutions involve changes in scientific methodology?