BAEcon Economics

This course introduces several major controversies in the philosophy of science and uses them to investigate the nature of science, its methods, and its accomplishments. Topics covered include inductivist vs. falsificationist methodology, Kuhnian relativism, scientific realism, theory and evidence, and laws of nature.

Pre-requisites: 20 PHIL credits at Level 1

The unit aims to:

• Introduce students to key issues in the philosophy of science;
• Enhance their skills at understanding and evaluating philosophical problems;
• Acquaint students with some of the special concepts used in characterising scientific methodology.

One two-hour lecture and one one-hour tutorial per week.

Students should be able to:

• Identify key issues in the philosophy of science;
• Evaluate philosophical problems concerning science;
• Accurately analyse and employ the special concepts used in characterising scientific methodology, such as inductive reasoning, refutation, confirmation, law of nature, and explanation.

Students should be able to:

• Construct detailed lines of argument relating to some central problems in the philosophy of science;
• Assess some received wisdom about the nature and purpose of science and of scientific method.

Students should be able to:

• Use research tools to effectively select resources in the preparation of assessments;
• Clearly communicate ideas about the philosophy of science.

Essay (2000 words) 33%

Exam (2 hours) 67%

The School of Social Sciences (SoSS) is committed to providing timely and appropriate feedback to students on their academic progress and achievement, thereby enabling students to reflect on their progress and plan their academic and skills development effectively. Students are reminded that feedback is necessarily responsive: only when a student has done a certain amount of work and approaches us with it at the appropriate time is it possible for us to feed back on the student's work. The main forms of feedback on this course are written feedback responses to assessed essays and exam answers.

We also draw your attention to the variety of generic forms of feedback available to you on this as on all SoSS courses. These include: meeting the lecturer/tutor during their office hours; e-mailing questions to the lecturer/tutor; asking questions from the lecturer (before and after lecture); presenting a question on the discussion board on Canvas; and obtaining feedback from your peers during tutorials.

• Lisa Bortolotti, An introduction to the philosophy of science (Wiley, 2008).
• James Ladyman, Understanding Philosophy of Science (Routledge, 2002).