Programme

The course aims at introducing the key questions of the philosophy and methodology of science, among these the competing theories of scientific explanation, the nature of scientific method, the relation between hypotheses and evidence and the cognitive content of scientific theories in light of their historical change and the demarcation between science and philosophy. While the first part of the course will consist in an introduction to these general topics (by using Okasha’s and Gillies and Giorello's texts), in the second, longer part we will read and comment three classics authors of 20th century philosophy of science, namely Karl Popper, Carl Hempel and Rudolf Carnap. The fundamental problem raised in the course is the objectivity of scientific knowledge.

Core Documentation

D. Gillies, Philosophy of Science in the twentieth century. Four central themes. Oxford-Cambridge, Mass, 1993
Karl .R. Popper, Scienza e Filosofia, Einaudi, Torino, 2000.
S. Okasha Philosophy of Science. A very short introduction, Oxford University Press, 2002
Carl G. Hempel, Philosophy of natural sciences Prentice Hall, 1966 (chapters available on the teacher's personal website)
Rudolf Carnap, Philosophical foundations of physics, 1966 (chapters available on the teacher's personal website)
Mauro Dorato. Cosa c'entra l'anima con gli atomi? 2017 2 ed., Laterza, Roma (Reichenbach not available)

Type of delivery of the course

Traditional lectures if allowed by the sanitary conditions. Otherwise on line

Type of evaluation

brief answers to questions covering the entire program, duration of the test 2 hours