PHIL 450.001 – Philosophy of Natural Sciences

Instructor: John T. Roberts. This course meets W 1:00 – 3:30 p.m. in CW 208.

This will be a survey of current issues in general philosophy of natural science aimed at advanced students of analytic philosophy who do not have any particular background in science or philosophy of science.  (It will, however, presuppose a basic knowledge of formal logic and of philosophy in the analytic tradition.)  The course will be divided into sections on (1) explanation, (2) reductionism and antireductionism, (3) induction and confirmation, and (4) realism and antirealism (though there will be considerable overlap among the content of the four sections).