PH400 One Unit
Philosophy of Science
This information is for the 2026/27 session.
Course convenor
Prof Miklos Redei
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.
Requisites
Students who have completed a BSc at LSE are not permitted to take this course if they have taken the equivalent course as part of their BSc. If this course is a core course for their chosen MSc programme, they can receive an exception for prior learning, which would allow them to take an alternative course approved by the programme director.
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 Autumn Term.
15 hours of seminars and 10 hours of lectures in the Winter Term.
This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Autumn and Winter Term.
Indicative reading
T S Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions; Curd and Cover, Philosophy of Science: The Central Issues; N Cartwright, How the Laws of Physics Lie.
Assessment
Exam (50%), duration: 180 Minutes in the Spring exam period.
Essay (25%, 2000 words).
Essay (25%, 2000 words).
Key facts
Department: Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method
Course study period: Autumn and Winter Term
Unit value: One unit
FHEQ level: Level 7
Total students 2025/26: 26
Average class size 2025/26: 13
Controlled access 2025/26: NoCourse selection videos
Some departments have produced short videos to introduce their courses. Please refer to the course selection videos index page for further information.