Undergraduate Module Descriptor

PHL2100: Knowledge and History: Theories of Scientific Change

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

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/.

How this Module is Assessed

In the tables below, you will see reference to 'ILO's. An ILO is an Intended Learning Outcome - see Aims and Learning Outcomes for details of the ILOs for this module.

Formative Assessment

A formative assessment is designed to give you feedback on your understanding of the module content but it will not count towards your mark for the module.

Form of assessment	Size of the assessment (eg length / duration)	ILOs assessed	Feedback method
Essay plan	500 words	1-6	Verbal

Summative Assessment

A summative assessment counts towards your mark for the module. The table below tells you what percentage of your mark will come from which type of assessment.

Coursework	Written exams	Practical exams
70	0	30

...and this table provides further details on the summative assessments for this module.

Form of assessment	% of credit	Size of the assessment (eg length / duration)	ILOs assessed	Feedback method
Group presentation	30	10 minutes	3,5,6	Verbal
Essay	70	2,500 words	1-6	Written feedback
	0
	0
	0
	0

Re-assessment

Re-assessment takes place when the summative assessment has not been completed by the original deadline, and the student has been allowed to refer or defer it to a later date (this only happens following certain criteria and is always subject to exam board approval). For obvious reasons, re-assessments cannot be the same as the original assessment and so these alternatives are set. In cases where the form of assessment is the same, the content will nevertheless be different.

Original form of assessment	Form of re-assessment	ILOs re-assessed	Timescale for re-assessment
Group presentation	Essay	3,5,6	August/September assessment period
Essay	Essay	1-6	August/September assessment period

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