STS 5305:
MAIN THEMES IN
PHILOSOPHY OF MODERN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY I
Wednesdays, 6:30 to 9:15 p.m., Summer, 2006
Instructor: Lee L. Zwanziger
Phone: (301) 443-5362
Email: lzwanzig@verizon.net
This class is the first of a two part sequence of introductory graduate courses. It is
designed to help students become familiar with several major topics prominent in philosophy of
science and technology and to develop skill in making and evaluating arguments about these and
related topics. Topics range from problems of knowledge such as whether and how we have it
and how can we tell we are not just fooling ourselves about it, through influences of science and
technology in society, and influences of society in science and technology. The courses can be
taken in either order, but numerical order (5305 first, followed by 5306) is recommended.
There will be five short written assignments, and a take home exam, each of which will
be due by email (as attachments, preferably in Word) by midnight of the due date. Students will
also be responsible for presenting an oral summary of the reading material assigned for the week
at least once during the term (details will depend on the number of students in the class).
Grading: participation in class including presentation- 20%, the best four of the short written
assignments – 15% each, final exam - 20%.
All papers and the final should be word-processed, with all quotations and other
references documented in any standard format: year, author + reference list, numbered endnotes,
footnotes. In general, the point of referencing is that a reader unfamiliar with this course should
be able to locate the original reference you used and read it in the original author’s context, so
that can be a guideline for what to provide. Please email the papers as an attachment, preferably
in Word, to me by midnight of the due date. Please check your calendars now to make sure you
can turn in your papers on time (one of the five could be omitted if without penalty if you wish).
If you do not have reasonably easy access to email/internet resources, or if you foresee
difficulties of other sorts, please contact me so we can make other arrangements.
The assigned readings will be drawn from the books listed below. These can be ordered
online from several vendors, and I have also requested that library copies be placed on reserve.
Planned assignments follow (but instructor reserves right of modification if needed).
Curd, M., and Cover, J.A. 1998. Philosophy of Science: The Central Issues. WW Norton and
Company. [C&C] (also will be used in 5306)
Hicks, S. R. C. 2004. Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and
Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault. Scholargy Publishing [H].
Mitcham, C. 1994.
Thinking Through Technology: The Path Between
Engineering and Philosophy. University of Chicago Press. [M]
Rosenberg, A. 2000. Philosophy of Science: A Contemporary Introduction. Routledge. [R]
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Scharff, R.C., and Dusek, V. (Eds). 2003. Philosophy of Technology: The Technological
Condition: An Anthology. Blackwell Publishing. [S&D] (also will be used in 5306)
Wk 1: Introduction and Overview: Philosophy of Science and Philosophy of Technology
[R] Ch 1, “Why Philosophy of Science?” and [S&D] 15-18
Bunge, “Philosophical Inputs and Outputs of Technology”
Ellul, “On the Aims of a Philosophy of Technology”
Shrader-Frechette, “Technology and Ethics”
Jonas, “Toward a Philosophy of Technology”
Wk 2: Skepticism: Setting up the problem of knowledge: [H] entire
Wk 3: Historical and analytical background for philosophy of technology: [M] entire
[short paper #1 due]
Wk 4: Heidegger and Reflections [S&D] 23-28
Heidegger, “The Question Concerning Technology”
Scharff, “On Philosophy’s “Ending” in Technoscience: Heidegger vs. Comte
Ihde, “Heidegger’s Philosophy of Technology”
Borgman, “Focal Things and Practices”
Dreyfus and Spinosa, “Heidegger and Borgman on How to Affirm Technology”
Feenberg, “Critical Evaluation of Heidegger and Borgman”
Wk 5: What is Philosophy of Technology and Why do it? [S&D] 19-22, 29-35
Kline, “What is Technology?”
Gehlen, “A Philosophical-Anthropological Perspective on Technology”
Pinch and Bijker, “The Social Contruction of Facts and Artifacts”
Winner, “Social Constructivism: Opening the Black Box and Finding it Empty”
Mumford, “Tool-Users vs. Homo Sapiens and The Megamachine”
Arendt, “The “Vita Activa” and the Modern Age”
Hickman, “Doing and Making in a Democracy: Dewey’s Experience of Technology”
Schumacher, “Buddhist Economics”
Ellul, “The “Autonomy of the Technological Phenomenon”
Heilbroner, “Do Machines Make History?”
Marcuse, “The New Forms of Control”
Wk 6 – Explanation and Laws
Explanation, causation, and laws [R] Ch 2
Models of explanation [C&C] Pt 6
Carnap, “The Value of Laws: Explanation and Prediction”
Hempel, “Two Basic Types of Scientific Explanation,” “The Thesis of Structural
Identity,” and “Inductive-Statistical Explanation”
Ruben, “Arguments, Laws and Explanation,”
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Railton, “A Deductive Nomological Model of Probabilistic Explanation”
[Short paper #2 due]
Wk 7 – More on Laws
Laws of nature [C&C] Pt 7
Ayer, “What is a Law of Nature?”
Dretske, “Laws of Nature”
Mellor, “Necessities and Universals in Natural Laws”
Cartwright, “Do the Laws of Physics State the Facts?”
Wk 8 – More on Explanation
Scientific explanation and its discontents [R], Ch 3
Induction, prediction, and evidence [C&C] Pt 4
Lipton, “Induction”
Popper, “The Problem of Induction”
Salmon, “Rational Prediction”
Hempel, “Criteria of Confirmation and Acceptability”
Snyder, “Is Evidence Historical?”
Achinstein, “Explanation v. Prediction: Which Carries More Weight?”
[short paper #3 due]
Wk 9 – Scientific Theories
The structure and metaphysics of scientific theories [R], Ch 4
Intertheoretic reduction [C&C], Pt 8
Nagel, “Issues in the Logic of Reductive Explanation”
Feyerabend, “How to be a Good Empiricist”
Nickles, “Two Concepts of Intertheoretic Reduction”
Kitcher, “1953 and All That: A Tale of Two Sciences”
Wk 10 – Metaphysics and Theories
Empiricism and scientific realism [C&C], Pt 9
Maxwell, “The Ontological Status of Theoretical Entities”
van Fraassen, “Arguments Concerning Scientific Realism”
Musgrave, “Realism versus Constructive Empiricism”
Lauden, “A Confutation of Convergent Realism”
Brown, “Explaining the Success of Science”
Hacking, “Experimentation and Scientific Realism”
Resnick, “Hacking’s Experimental Realism”
Fine, “the Natural Ontological Attitude”
Musgrave, “NOA’s Ark—Fine for Realism”
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[Short paper #4 due]
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Wk 11 – Theories and Evidence
The epistemology of scientific theorizing [R], Ch 5
The Duhem-Quine thesis and underdetermination [C&C], Pt 3
Duhem, “Physical Theory and Experiment”
Quine, “Two Dogmas of Empiricism”
Gillies, “The Duhem Thesis and the Quine Thesis”
Lauden, “Demystifying Underdeterination”
Wk 12 – Bayes and Theories
Confirmation and relevance: Bayesian approaches [C&C], Pt 5
Salmon, “Rationality and Objectivity in Science or Tom Kuhn Meets Tom Bayes”
Glymour, “Why I am Not a Bayesian”
Horwich, “Wittgensteinian Bayesianism”
[Short paper #5 due]
[Final exam emailed following paper due date, due back by midnight, Monday, 8/14]
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