Dr Bryan Roberts

This course is available on the MSc in Economics and Philosophy, MSc in Philosophy and Public Policy, MSc in Philosophy of Science, MSc in Philosophy of the Social Sciences and MSc in Social Research Methods. This course is not available as an outside option.

In pursuing a masters degree at LSE, you will quickly become aware that science is chock full of miraculous predictions, shocking revolutions, and utterly strange results that few science fiction writers could have ever dreamed of. But what makes science so special? This course is an tour of the philosophical underpinnings of modern science. Some of the questions we will tackle include: What is a scientific theory? What is the logical structure of confirmation by experiment? Are unobservable entities like quarks and gluons real? What are causes and effects? Does science undergo revolutions? More generally, our inquiry will cover the following kinds of questions:

1. metaphysical questions of what science is and is about;
2. methodological questions of how science works; and
3. conceptual questions that arise in the context of the special sciences.

No background in any science is needed for this course; everything you need to know will be covered, although we will dive into the philosophical issues at an advanced level. In Michaelmas Term, our topics will include: the nature and definition of philosophy of science and of science (weeks 1-3); scientific realism (weeks 4-5); thought experiments and confirmation of theory by experiment (weeks 6-8); reduction and laws of nature (weeks 9-10). In Lent Term, we will turn to: how science represents and explains the world (weeks 11-12), the nature of causes and effects (weeks 13-14), scientific research programmes and revolutions (weeks 15-16), as well as some conceptual issues in the special sciences (biology, physics and the social sciences, weeks 17-20).

10 hours of lectures and 15 hours of seminars in the MT. 10 hours of lectures and 15 hours of seminars in the LT.

Students will be expected to write three essays (two in MT and one in LT), submit a few short answers before each seminar, and participate in discussion in seminars.

T S Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions; K R Popper, Conjectures and Refutations; B van Fraassen, The Scientific Image; N Cartwright, How the Laws of Physics Lie.

Exam (100%, duration: 3 hours) in the main exam period.