PH400      One Unit
Philosophy of Science

This information is for the 2025/26 session.

Course Convenor

Prof Bryan Roberts

Availability

This course is compulsory on the MSc in Philosophy of Science. This course is available on the MSc in Philosophy and Public Policy and MSc in Philosophy of Economics and the Social Sciences. This course is freely available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit. It does not require permission.

Course content

Science is chock full of miraculous predictions, shocking revolutions, and unexpected results that few science fiction writers could have ever dreamed of. What makes science so special? This course is a tour of the philosophical underpinnings of modern science. No background in any science is needed for this course; everything you need to know will be covered. Indicative topics include: the structure of science and of the philosophy of science: Popper, Lakatos, Kuhn, and beyond. Formal epistemology of science and social structures of science, including computational models of diversity and inequality (no computational background needed). Explanation and confirmation: the deductive nomological explanation, statistical explanation, hypothetic-deductive confirmation, Bayesianism.  Laws of Nature: the regularity view of laws, the best systems account. Realism versus Antirealism: Scientific realism and antirealism, the no miracles argument, inference to the best explanation, the pessimistic meta-induction, constructive empiricism, entity realism, structural realism. Models: scientific modelling and scientific representation.

Teaching

15 hours of seminars and 10 hours of lectures in the Winter Term.
15 hours of seminars and 10 hours of lectures in the Autumn Term.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Autumn and Winter Term.

Formative assessment

One 1,500 word essay and in-class group work including a group presentation in AT, and one essay in WT, participation in class discussions.

Indicative reading

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

Assessment

Exam (50%), duration: 180 Minutes in the Spring exam period

Oral examination (50%)


Key facts

Department: Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method

Course Study Period: Autumn and Winter Term

Unit value: One unit

FHEQ Level: Level 7

CEFR Level: Null

Total students 2024/25: 25

Average class size 2024/25: 13

Controlled access 2024/25: No
Guidelines for interpreting course guide information

Course selection videos

Some departments have produced short videos to introduce their courses. Please refer to the course selection videos index page for further information.