Assessment

Seminar presentation 10%, oral exam 30%, final exam 60%

Module Aims

This is a course on the philosophy of science and nature and it focuses on two major issues. The first is the philosophy of science and considers the philosophical presuppositions of science. This will involve considerations of the nature of science, its methodology, its demarcation from other sciences, and scientific explanation.

The second is the philosophy of nature and considers how philosophical issues can help us to understand the natural world in a way that natural science cannot. As will be seen, it was philosophical considerations of this kind that helped to drive developments in modern science, so that what look like scientific advances are actually advances (or retreats) within the philosophy of nature.

Learning Outcomes

• — LO1 Recognise the place of philosophy within science
• — LO2 Separate science from non-science
• — LO3 Discuss opposing views of the nature of science
• — LO4 Identify philosophical insights into nature
• — LO5 Evaluate natural scientific claims using philosophy
• — LO6 Discuss theories of matter, motion, space, and time.
• — LO7 Recognise the philosophical reasoning in contemporary physical theory.