Topics in the Philosophy of Science

24.810, Spring 2014

Instructor: Brad Skow.

Class Meetings: Thursdays, 2pm, 4th floor. (No class on 2/27.)


Readings:

Information about how to obtain readings not linked from this site was distributed separately. Email me if you need reminding.

Schedule:

Feb 6: What is an analysis of causation?
HP (Hall and Paul), chs. 1 and 2.

Feb 13: Preemption, I.
HP, ch3, up through the end of sect. 4.2.4. Skip sections 2.3.3, and 3.3, on Yablo.

Feb 20: Steve's Theory; Preemption, II.
Yablo, "Advertisement"; HP Ch3, 2.3.3; 3.3; 4.2.5 to the end of 4.3.3. Skip all discussions of structural equations.

Feb 27: No class (Central APA).

Mar 6: Omissions.
HP Ch4 (skip all discussions of Hitchcock and/or structural equations).
Supplementary: Schaffer, "Contrastive Causation," sections 1 and 2;
McGrath, "Causation by Omission: A Dilemma."

Mar 13: Program Explanation, Structural Explanation.
Jackson and Petit, "Program Explanation: A General Perspective."
Jackson and Petit, "Structural Explanation in Social Theory."
(If you do not know how to get the readings, contact me.)

Mar 20: Pluralism vs Monism about Value.
Value in Ethics and Economics (VEE), Ch 1; Ch 6.1, 6.3.
Supplementary: Heathwood, Monism and Pluralism about Value.

Apr 3: Sally on Structural Explanation.
Haslanger, "What is a (Social) Structural Explanation?"

Apr 10: The Ethical Limitations of the Market.
VEE, Ch 7.

Apr 17: Evidence and Hypothesis.
Longino, Science as Social Knowledge, chapter 3.

Apr 24: Values and Objectivity in Science.
Longino chapters 4-6 (only the section "Behavioral Neuroendocrinology," pp. 112 forward, of chapter 6).

May 1: Explanation and Why-Questions.
Van Fraassen, The Scientific Image, chapter 5. (Our focus will be on sections 2.8 and following. Available on Oxfordscholarship Online.)
Kitcher and Salmon, Van Fraassen on Explanation.

May 8: The "manipulationist" theory of explanation.
Woodward, Making Things Happen, chapter 5.

May 15: Inference to the Best Explanation?
Van Fraassen, Laws and Symmetry, chapters 6 and 7.
Background: White, "Explanation as a Guide to Induction."



Brad Skow | MIT