Calendar. The assignments below are approximate and tentative. The reading guide for each class will give full details of the assignment and sometimes include passages that are part of your assignment.
| Carnap | Kuhn | JSTOR | reading guides | ||||
| 8/24 | intro | ||||||
| 8/29 | Laws and explanation | ch. 1 (3-18) |
rg | ||||
| 8/31 | The concept of probability | ch. 2 (pp.19-28) |
rg | ||||
| 9/5 | Induction | ch. 3 (29-39) |
rg | ||||
| 9/7 | Experiment | ch. 4 (40-47) |
rg | ||||
| 9/12 | Measurement | chs. 5-6 (51-69) |
Stevens [on JSTOR] | rg | |||
| 9/14 | Quantitative thinking | chs. 10-11 (96-114) |
rg | ||||
| 9/19 | The concept of cause | chs. 19-21 (187-215) |
rg | ||||
| 9/21 |
Determinism (paper 1 due) |
ch. 22 (216-222) |
rg | ||||
| 9/26 | Theoretical concepts | chs. 23-24 (225-239) |
rg | ||||
| 9/28 | Scientific realism | chs. 25-26 (240-256) |
rg | ||||
| 10/3 | Science seen historically | § I-II and ps. §1 (1-22, 174-181) |
rg | ||||
| 10/5 | “Normal” science | §§ III-IV and ps. §2 (23-42, 181-187) |
rg | ||||
| 10/10 | Paradigms | § V and ps. §3 (43-51, 187-191) |
rg | ||||
| midsemester break | |||||||
| 10/17 | Novelty | §§ VI-VII (52-76) |
rg | ||||
| 10/19 | The end of normality | § VIII (77-91) |
rg | ||||
| 10/24 | Revolution | § IX (92-110) |
rg | ||||
| 10/26 | A changed world | §§ X-XI and ps. §4 (111-143, 191-198) |
rg | ||||
| 10/31 | Changing scientists | § XII and ps. §5 (144-159, 198-204) |
rg | ||||
| 11/2 | Scientific progress (paper 2 due) |
§ XIII and ps. §§6-7 (160-173, 205-210) |
rg | ||||
| 11/7 | Geometry and convention | chs. 13-15 (125-151) |
rg | ||||
| 11/9 | Space and relativity theory | chs. 16-17 (152-176) |
rg | ||||
| 11/14 | Statistical laws and uncertainty | chs. 29-30 (277-292) |
rg | ||||
| 11/16 | Quantum mysteries | Redhead [on JSTOR]
Mermin [on JSTOR]
|
rg | ||||
| Thanksgiving break | |||||||
| 11/28 | The concept of species | Ruse [on JSTOR] | rg | ||||
| 11/30 | Reductionism and biology (paper 3 due) | Rosenberg [on JSTOR] (135-147) |
rg | ||||
| 12/5 | Reductionism continued | Rosenberg [on JSTOR] (147-162) |
rg | ||||
| 12/7 | Natural selection and artificial intelligence | Dennett [on JSTOR] | rg | ||||
|
Mon 12/11 |
final (paper 4 written in class) | ||||||