Undergraduate Module Descriptor

PHL2100: Knowledge and History: Theories of Scientific Change

This module descriptor refers to the 2018/9 academic year.

Module Aims

- To develop a critical, nuanced, and self-confident understanding of key concepts, theories and schools within twentieth-century epistemology.

- To raise critical awareness of the contested status of knowledge claims, including scientific ones, and of the importance of cultural, socio-economic and political factors that shape knowledge.

- To interrogate difficult philosophical books for nuances and layers of meaning, styles and strategies of reasoning, as well as tensions and contradictions.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)
This module's assessment will evaluate your achievement of the ILOs listed here – you will see reference to these ILO numbers in the details of the assessment for this module.
On successfully completing the programme you will be able to:
Module-Specific Skills	1. demonstrate a foundational knowledge of the main positions in twentieth-century epistemology with regard to the problem of induction, the nature of experiment, and the notion of scientific progress; 2. evaluate these positions and to understand and analyse the arguments that have been raised for and against them;
Discipline-Specific Skills	3. interpret, and discuss difficult philosophical texts; 4. philosophical style and develop an awareness of the dynamics of scientific knowledge production; and develop an awareness of the dynamics of scientific knowledge production.
Personal and Key Skills	5. construct, express, present and discuss ideas and arguments, both of your own and of others, according to academic standards; and 6. demonstrate the ability to analyse received wisdom as well as the ability to avoid rash conclusions.

Module Content

Syllabus Plan

Whilst the module’s precise content may vary from year to year, it is envisaged that the syllabus will cover some or all of the following topics:

Introduction: Scientific Progress and Truth

The Scientific Revolution I: Galileo
The Scientific Revolution II: Hobbes vs. Boyle
Logical Atomism, Verificationism, and Falsificationism
Methodology of Scientific Research Programs
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
Sociology of Science: The Strong Programme
Genesis of a Scientific Fact
Historical Epistemology
The New Pragmatism
Summary and Conclusion

Learning and Teaching

This table provides an overview of how your hours of study for this module are allocated:

Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities	Guided independent study	Placement / study abroad
22	128

...and this table provides a more detailed breakdown of the hours allocated to various study activities:

Category	Hours of study time	Description
Scheduled Learning and Teaching activity	22	Weekly two-hour seminars, introduced by a 45 min. lecture from the lecturer. Each seminar will focus on a classical book. It will include 20-30 min. group presentations (depending on number of students in the group) on these books, followed by in-depth discussions of the concepts and arguments employed. A section from the book will be selected as required reading for all seminar participants
Guided independent study	128	A variety of private study activities guided by your module leader. Most of this time (60 hours) is going to be spent on reading the assigned books. In addition, you will be pointed to secondary literature on these books, and asked to do your own research for literature on JSTOR and similar on-line repositories for philosophical literature (30 hours). Based on this work, you will be asked to prepare one assessed group presentation of 20 mins (8 hours), one essay plan consisting of a short proposal and literature review (10 hours), and an essay of 2500 words (20 hours).

Online Resources

This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).

Lecture notes and reading lists are made available through ELE: http://vle.exeter.ac.uk/
A good online source in general for background reading in philosophy is the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy at http://plato.stanford.edu/.

Indicative Reading List

This reading list is indicative - i.e. it provides an idea of texts that may be useful to you on this module, but it is not considered to be a confirmed or compulsory reading list for this module.

C. G. Hempel, The Philosophy of Natural Sciences, Prentice Hall 1966.
S. Shapin, The Scientific Revolution, Chicago University Press 1998.
H.-J. Rheinberger, On Historisizing Epistemology, Stanford University Press 2010