HPS200H1 Winter 2022: Science and Values
Contact Info
Instructor: Cory Lewis
e-mail: cory.lewis@utoronto.ca
e-mail policy: For questions about assignments or marks, your first point of e-mail contact should
be your TA. Content based questions (questions about lecture materials or readings) should be
asked during the weekly class discussion. If you have a question that does not match either of
those criteria, please email me and I will do my best to respond within 48 hours.
Office Hours: Video office hours for individual students will be available on Tuesday afternoons
from 1pm to 4pm. Please make an appointment using the calendar on Quercus, and I will send
you a link.
Classes
This class will mix synchronous and asynchronous delivery. Pre-recorded lecture videos will be
posted on Mondays, and can be watched at any time. We will have weekly synchronous meetings
at 11:10am on Tuesdays for class discussion. Tutorials will be synchronous, and present skills and
strategies for handling the assignment. See Quercus for links to both.
Tutorials
Tutorials will focus on the skills needed to succeed in the course. Your TA will guide you through
the expectations for assignments, as well as study, research, and writing strategies. It is important
for students to attend the tutorials of their TA, as they are the one who will be marking your
assignments. Tutorial attendance and participation are required. See the section on ‘Tutorial
Participation’ for more details.
HPS200H1 Winter 2022: Science and Values
Course Description
Science is often understood as an activity that has nothing to do with values. This way of thinking
imagines that we have objective scientific facts on the one hand, and human values on the other
hand, with no connection or interaction between the two. The point of this course is to explore
the ways in which this picture is too simple.
There are two main ways in which science and values interact – values impacting the practice of
science, and science impacting our values. We will begin with looking at the role of values in
scientific practice, for good and bad. Sometimes human values can deeply compromise the
practice of science, as in cases of bias and fraud. But values can also provide the inspiration and
energy needed to vigorously pursue a scientific research program. Values shape our picture of
which questions are worth asking, and how hard we should pursue answers.
Science can also influence our values, showing us new ways of thinking about what is good and
important. In the second half of the course, we will look at a small sample of such cases. For
example, traditional value systems tell us very little about whether it is ok to genetically modify
ourselves, or how to deal with the creation of artificial intelligences. We will also look at the
questions surrounding scientific authority, and who has the right to contribute to the projects of
science.
Course Objectives
This course is designed for non-specialists from all academic backgrounds. All efforts will be made
to avoid assuming knowledge in either philosophy or science. The aim of this course is to help
students develop their ability to reflect critically on the practice of science, and its place in our
lives. A heavy emphasis will be placed on critical reading and writing, with relatively little concern
for memorizing the details of course content. Basic familiarity with the content of lectures will be
tested in quizzes and the mid-term, and a broad familiarity with lecture content will be expected
in written assignments. But the point of the course is primarily to cultivate and develop a style of
thinking and writing which is focused on arguments.
Top marks will be awarded to students who demonstrate creative, critical thinking which goes
beyond merely reproducing ideas presented in class. It is quite possible to pass this class without
a great deal of original thinking, but A’s and A+’s will be reserved for students who can
demonstrate that they have thought deeply about the themes of the course, and can go beyond
merely regurgitating the opinions of the lecturer. Thoughtful and well argued objections to the
views presented in class will be especially rewarded.
HPS200H1 Winter 2022: Science and Values
Assignments
Quizzes – 15% - ongoing
Tutorial Participation – 16%
Short Essay – 25% - March 4th
Essay Proposal and Annotated Bibliography – 10% - March 18th
Final Essay – 34% - April 8th
Quizzes
Short quizzes will be posted to Quercus. There will be 10 quizzes in total, consisting of multiple
choice questions. These quizzes will test knowledge of the lectures and readings. They will be
made available at the beginning of the week, and due by 5pm on Fridays. Students are expected
to attempt these quizzes independently (no soliciting help from your classmates) but are open
book, meaning you can consult any course materials or your own notes during the quiz.
Given that I will publish answers to the quizzes at the beginning of the next week, I cannot give
extensions on the quizzes. However, everyone’s lowest scoring quiz will be automatically dropped
from their grade.
Tutorial Participation
After the first tutorial (where participation is merely attendance) there will be a micro-assignment
which must be handed at the end of the tutorial. These will be extremely short, and based entirely
on the content of the tutorial. They will be marked as either completed for full marks, or not
completed. Any sincere attempt to complete the activity will be assigned full marks. Students
must both attend the whole tutorial and submit the micro-assignment. Micro-assignments are
due within 24 hours of the tutorial.
HPS200H1 Winter 2022: Science and Values
Short Essay
Students will choose one of a small collection of passages from the readings. In approximately
1000 words, they will summarize the content and context of the passage, and critique it. These
short essays will be evaluated in terms of the accuracy and completeness of the summary, the
strength of the critique, and overall writing quality.
Essay Proposal and Annotated Bibliography
In the essay proposal, students will write a short (200-500 word) proposal for what their essay
topic and approach will be. Your thoughts here do not need to be fully developed, and it is
expected that they will evolve as you write the final essay. However, after this proposal has been
submitted, major changes in topic must be approved by your TA.
The proposal should also contain an annotated bibliography of at least 3 entries. Those citations
should be related to the topic proposed, and will hopefully constitute the beginning of your
research for your final essay. Very short summaries of the thesis and argument of the citations
constitute the ‘annotation’. These summaries should be between 50 and 100 words, which are in
addition to the 200-500 words of the proposal.
Final Essay
For the final essay, students will choose from a list of topics related to course content. They will
then write an exegesis on the topic, and then provide their own critical assessment of it. The
structure and content of these essays will be discussed extensively in tutorials and class
discussions, so please check those spaces for further instructions.
HPS200H1 Winter 2022: Science and Values
Late Policy
Late assignments will be penalized at 5% per day (including weekends), without medical
documentation or a note from your registrar. Assignments more than one week late will not be
accepted. Extensions may be granted on humanitarian grounds – contact your TA as soon as
possible!
Plagiarism Detection Tools
Normally, students will be required to submit their course essays to the University’s plagiarism detection
tool for a review of textual similarity and detection of possible plagiarism. In doing so, students will
allow their essays to be included as source documents in the tool’s reference database, where they will
be used solely for the purpose of detecting plagiarism. The terms that apply to the University’s use of
this tool are described on the Centre for Teaching Support & Innovation web site (https://uoft.me/pdtfaq).
Class Schedule
Week 1 – January 10th to 14th
Quiz
Tutorial
Reading
Quiz 1 due Friday No tutorial
No readings
at 5pm
Assignment
No assignment
Lecture Topic
Practicing Science
Week 2 – January 17th to 21st
Quiz
Tutorial
Reading
Quiz 2 due Friday No tutorial
Grinnell Chapter 1
at 5pm
Assignment
No assignment
Lecture Topic
Discovery
Week 3 – January 24th to 28th
Quiz
Tutorial
Reading
Quiz 3 due Friday No Tutorial
Grinnell Chapter 2
at 5pm
Assignment
No assignment
Lecture Topic
Intro to Science
and Values
HPS200H1 Winter 2022: Science and Values
Lecture Topic
Credibility
Week 4 – January 31st to February 4th
Quiz
Tutorial
Reading
Quiz 4 due Friday Tutorial 1
Grinnell Chapter 3
at 5pm
Assignment
No assignment
Lecture Topic
Integrity
Week 5 – February 7th to 11th
Quiz
Tutorial
Reading
Quiz 5 due Friday Tutorial 2
Grinnell Chapter 4
at 5pm
Assignment
No assignment
Lecture Topic
Ideology
Week 6 – February 14th to 18th
Quiz
Tutorial
Reading
Quiz 6 due Friday at Tutorial 3
Lewontin Chapter
5pm
2
Assignment
No assignment
Week 7 – February 22nd to 26th (Reading Week)
Quiz
Tutorial
Reading
No quiz
No Tutorial
No Reading
Assignment
No assignment
Lecture Topic
Adaptationism
Week 8 – March 1st to 5th
Quiz
Tutorial
Reading
Quiz 7 due Friday No tutorial
Lloyd Chapters 3
at 5pm
and 4
Assignment
Short Essay due
Friday at 5pm
Lecture Topic
Human Nature
Week 9 – March 7th to 11th
Quiz
Tutorial
Reading
Quiz 8 due Friday Tutorial 4
Lewens
at 5pm
Assignment
No assignment
due
Lecture Topic
No lecture
Lecture Topic
Genetic
Engineering
Lecture Topic
Geoengineering
Quiz
No quiz
Week 10 – March 14th to 18th
Tutorial
Reading
Tutorial 5
Maarten and
Pigliucci
Week 11 – March 21st to 25th
Quiz
Tutorial
Reading
Quiz 9 due Friday Tutorial 6
Preston
at 5pm
Assignment
Essay Proposal
due Friday at 5pm
Assignment
No assignment
due
HPS200H1 Winter 2022: Science and Values
Lecture Topic
Ethics of AI
Lecture Topic
Against Method
Week 12 – March 28th to April 1st
Quiz
Tutorial
Reading
Quiz 10 due
Tutorial 7
Müller
Friday at 5pm
Quiz
No quiz
Week 13 – April 4th to April 8th
Tutorial
Reading
Tutorial 8
Feyerabend
Assignment
No assignment
due
Assignment
Final Essay due
Friday at 5pm
Citations
Grinnell, Frederick. Everyday practice of science: Where intuition and passion meet objectivity and logic.
Oxford University Press, 2011.
Chapters 1-4, pp. 1-128
Lewontin, Richard. Biology as ideology: The doctrine of DNA. House of Anansi, 1996.
Chapter 2. pp. 19-37
Lloyd, Elisabeth Anne. The case of the female orgasm: Bias in the science of evolution. Harvard
University Press, 2009.
Chapters 3-4, pp. 44-107
Lewens, Tim. "Human nature: the very idea." Philosophy & Technology 25.4 (2012): 459-474.
Entire paper.
Boudry, Maarten, and Massimo Pigliucci. "The mismeasure of machine: Synthetic biology and the trouble
with engineering metaphors." Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and
Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 44.4 (2013): 660-668.
Entire paper.
Preston, Christopher J. "Re-thinking the unthinkable: environmental ethics and the presumptive argument
against geoengineering." Environmental values 20.4 (2011): 457-479.
HPS200H1 Winter 2022: Science and Values
Entire Paper
Müller, Vincent C. (forthcoming). Ethics of Artificial Intelligence. In Anthony Elliott (ed.), The Routledge
social science handbook of AI. London: Routledge. pp. 1-20.
Entire paper.
Accessed via: http://www.sophia.de/pdf/2020_Ethics-AI_Routledge.pdf
Feyerabend, Paul. Against method. Verso, 1993.
Analytical index, Ch 1-2. pp. 10-33