Grundlegend umw lzende wissenschaftliche Erkenntnis f hrt zu gleicherma en weitreichenden Umw lzungen in der Philosophie. Diese Verbindung wird anhand des Beispiels der Lehren von Kopernikus, Darwin oder Freud aufgezeigt.
General Introduction.
I. Nicolaus Copernicus: The Loss of Centrality.
I. 1 Ptolemy and Copernicus.
I. 2 A Clash of two Worldviews.
I. 2. 1 The Geocentric Worldview.
I. 2. 2 Aristotle’s Cosmology.
I. 2. 3 Ptolemy’s Geocentrism.
I. 2. 4 A Philosophical Aside: Outlook.
I. 2. 5 Some Medieval Developments.
I. 3 The Heliocentric Worldview.
I. 3. 1 Nicolaus Copernicus.
I. 3. 2 The Explanation of the Seasons.
I. 3. 3 Copernicus and the Copernican Turn.
I. 3. 3. 1 A Philosophical Aside: from empirical adequacy to theoretical validity.
I. 3. 4 Copernicus Consolidated: Kepler and Galileo.
I. 4 Copernicus was not a Scientific Revolutionary.
I. 4. 1 The Copernican Method.
1.4. 2 The Relativity of Motion.
I. 5 The Transition to Newton.
I. 5. 1 On Hypotheses.
I. 6 Some Philosophical Lessons.
I. 6. 1 The Loss of Centrality.
I. 6. 2 Was Copernicus a Realist?.
I. 6. 2. 1 Lessons for Instrumentalism and Realism.
I. 6. 3 Modern Realism.
I. 6. 4 The Underdetermination of Theories by Evidence.
I. 6. 4. 1 The Duhem-Quine Thesis.
I. 6. 4. 2 The Power of Constraints.
I. 6. 5 Theories, Models and Laws.
I. 6. 5. 1 Theories and Models.
I. 6. 5. 2 Laws of Nature, Laws of Science.
I. 6. 5. 3 Philosophical Views of Laws.
A. The Inference View.
B. The Regularity View.
C. The Necessitarian View.
D. The Structural View.
I. 7 Copernicus and Scientific Revolutions.
I. 8 The Anthropic Principle: A Reversal of the Copernican Turn?.
Reading List.
Essay Questions.
II. Charles Darwin: The Loss of Rational Design.
II. 1 Darwin and Copernicus.
II. 2 Views of Organic Life.
II. 2. 1 Views of Life before Darwin.
II. 2. 1. 1 The Great Chain of Being.
II. 2. 1. 2 Design Arguments.
II. 2. 1. 3 Lamarck: progressive evolution.
II. 3 Fossil Discoveries.
II. 3. 1 Of Bones and Skeletons.
II. 3. 2. The Antiquity of Man.
II. 4 Darwin’s Revolution.
II. 4. 1 The Darwinian View of Life.
II. 4. 1. 1 Principles of Evolution.
II. 4. 2 The Descent of Man.
II. 5 Philosophical Matters.
II. 5. 1 Philosophical Presuppositions: mechanical worldview, determinism,.
materialism.
II. 5.2 From Biology to the Philosophy of Mind.
II. 5. 2. 1 Empiricism.
II. 5.2.2 Philosophy of Mind.
II. 5.2.3 Emergent Minds.
II. 5. 3 The Loss of Rational Design.
II. 5.4 Intelligent Design.
II. 6 A Question of Method.
II. 6.1 Darwinian Inferences.
II. 6. 2 Philosophical Empiricism.
II. 6. 3 Some Principles of Elimination.
II. 6.4 Essential Features of Eliminative Inductivism.
II. 6.5 Falsifiability or Testability?.
II. 6.6 Explanation and Prediction.
II. 6.6 Some Models of Explanation – Functional Model, Causal Model, Structural Model.
II. 6. 6. 1 Hempel’s Model.
II. 6. 6. 2 Functional Models.
II. 6. 6. 2 Causal Models.
II. 6. 6. 2. 1 A Counterfactual-interventionist Account.
II. 6. 6. 2. 2 Mackie’s INUS Account.
II. 6. 6. 2. 2 A Conditional View of Causality.
II. 6. 6. 3 Structural Explanations.
II. 6. 7 A Brief Return to Realism.
II. 6. 8 Darwin and Scientific Revolutions.
II. 6. 8. 1 Philosophical Consequences.
Reading List.
Essay Questions.
III. Freud: The Loss of Transparency.
III. 1 Copernicus, Darwin and Freud.
III. 2 Some Views of Humankind.
III. 2. 1 Enlightenment Views of Human Nature.
III. 2. 2 Nietzsche’s View of Human Nature.
III. 3 Scientism and the Freudian Model of Personality.
III. 3. 1 Freud’s Model of the Mind.
III. 3. 1. 1 A Summary of Psychoanalytic Theory.
III. 3. 1. 2 Analogy with Physics.
III. 3. 1. 3 Freud as an Enlightenment Thinker.
III. 3. 1. 4 The Scientific Status of Freud’s Model.
III. 3. 1. 4. 1 Freud’s Methods.
III. 3. 1. 4. 2 The Model of Eliminative Induction, again.
III. 3. 1. 5 Freud stands between the Empirical and Hermeneutic Models.
III. 3. 1. 6 The role of mind in the social world.
III. 4 The Social Sciences beyond Freud.
III. 4. 1 Two Standard Models of the Social Sciences – Some History.
III. 4. 1. 1 The Naturalistic Model.
III. 4. 1. 2 The Hermeneutic Model.
III. 4. 2 The Essential Features of Social Science Models.
III. 4. 2. 1 Essential Features of the Naturalistic Model.
III. 4. 2. 2 Essential Features of the Hermeneutic Model.
III. 4. 3 Questions of Methodology.
III. 4. 3.1 What is Verstehen?.
III. 4. 3. 2 Weber’s Methodology of Ideal Types.
III. 4. 3. 3 Verstehen and Objectivity.
III. 4. 4 Causation in the Social Sciences.
III. 4. 4. 1 Weber on Causation.
III. 4. 4. 2 On the Existence of Social Laws.
III. 4. 4. 3 Explanation and Prediction in the Social Sciences.
III. 4. 4. 4 Underdetermination.
III. 4. 4. 5 Realism and Relativism.
III. 4. 4. 6 Reductionism and Functionalism.
III. 5 Evolution and the Social Sciences.
III. 5. 1 Sociobiology.
III. 5. 2 Evolutionary Psychology.
III. 6 Freud and Revolutions in Thought.
III. 6. 1 Revolutions in Thought vs. Revolutions in Science.
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Reading List.
Essay Questions