Philosophy of science: objectives, nature and scope, philosophy as a human science and science as natural philosophy.- Nature of scientific explanation: causal laws of Descartes and Liebniz; the pragmatics of explanation: the unification model of explanation; Case studies: Galileo-s laws describing the motion of freely falling bodies and projectiles and derivation of Newton-s laws and Kepler-s laws; Induction:falsifiability, justification and complexity of scientific inferences; ambiguities of induction and Goodman-s new riddle of induction; Case study: Bayles- theorem;Metaphysics of scientific entities: realism about scientific entities; Space, time, creation and evolution: Indian and western perspectives; Case studies: axiomatism and computational positivism in mathematics, Godel-s theorem; Confirmation of scientific theory: objective evidence, Aristotle-s worldview and later developments; problem of under determination of theory by evidence; Case studies: Heisenberg-s indeterminacy and quantum collapse; Case study :causation and belief revision:detennination and self-organization, Ramsey test and counterfactual worlds. Geuetic prediction and ethical issues; Challenges to the objectivity of science: the challenge from Kuhnian relativism, the challenge from the sociology of scientific knowledge and social constructivism, the challenge from feminist epistemology and feminist philosophy of science. Case study.
1. G. Galilie, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, translated by S. Drake, Modem Library, 2001.2. S. I. Newton, Newton-s Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy and His System of the World: The System of the World, Translator A.- Motto, Kessinger Publishing Company, 2003.3. A. I. Rosenberg, Philosophy of Science: A Contemporary Introduction, Routledge, 2000.4. W. C. Salmon, Four Decades of Scientific Explanation, University of Minnesota Press, 1989.
1. F. Suppe, The Structure of Scientific Theories, 2nd Ed, University of Illinois Press, 1977.2. B. Latour and S. Woolgar, Laboratory Life: The Construction of Scientific Facts, 2nd Ed, Princeton University Press, 1986.3. C. Howson and P.- Urbach, Scientific Reasoning: The Bayesian Approach, 1989.4. D. L. Hull and M. Ruse, The Philosophy of Biology, Oxford University Press, 1998.5. R. Klee, Introduction to the Philosophy of Science: Cutting Nature at Its Joints, Oxford University Press, 1997.
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