BASS Sociology and Criminology

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.

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).

Tuition fees for home students commencing their studies in September 2027 will be £10,050 per annum. Tuition fees for international students will be £29,200 per annum.

For general information please see the undergraduate finance pages.

All students should normally be able to complete their programme of study without incurring additional study costs over and above the tuition fee for that programme. Any unavoidable additional compulsory costs totalling more than 1% of the annual home undergraduate fee per annum, regardless of whether the programme in question is undergraduate or postgraduate taught, will be made clear to you at the point of application. Further information can be found in the University's Policy on additional costs incurred by students on undergraduate and postgraduate taught programmes (PDF document, 91KB).

Scholarships and bursaries, including the Manchester Bursary , are available to eligible home/EU students.

Some undergraduate UK students will receive bursaries of up to £2,000 per year, in addition to the government package of maintenance grants.

You can get information and advice on student finance to help you manage your money.