Engelsk
| PHI401 |
Research Ethics and Philosophy of Science I |
| Course responsible |
Terje Kvilhaug |
HH |
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| Number of credits allocated |
5.0 |
| Language |
English |
| Limits for class size |
- |
| Semester/trimester |
| August block |
Autumn parallel |
January block |
Spring parallel |
June block |
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X |
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| Colour explanation: Red/yellow = teaching periods. The red period indicates when the teaching starts. |
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| Teachers |
Frode Kjosavik, Deborah Oughton. |
| Type of course |
Around 28 hours lectures + seminars and group discussions. |
| Compulsory educational activities |
The studentens must attend at least 65 % of lectures and seminars. |
| Reduction of credits for overlapping courses |
The course overlaps the first part of the course PHI 402. Students who take the course PHI 402 in addition to PHI 401 will only receive 5 study points. Students who have taken the course PHI 400 (given last time autumn 2008) will receive no study points by taking the courses PHI 401 or PHI 402. |
| Recommended prerequisites |
Examen Philosophicum or equivalent. |
| Exam |
O |
| Assessment methods |
Term paper. |
| Grading |
Pass/Fail |
| Nominal workload |
150 hours, term paper included. |
| Course frequency |
Annually |
| Comment on frequency |
- |
| Teaching methods |
Lectures, seminars and application of theory in term paper |
| Teaching support |
Teachers will be available by appointment. |
| Examiner |
The quality is ensured through cooperation with external examiner. |
| Entrance requirements |
Minimum requirements for entrance to higher education in Norway (generell studiekompetanse)
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| Note |
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| Lectures, seminars and literature in the course PHI 401 and in the first part of the course PHI 402 will be shared. |
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| Objective of course |
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The course aims at an increased understanding of science in practice, i. e. science as it is carried out in diverse ways within the natural, social and cultural sphere. The course considers what is specific about scientific practice, rationality and method in diverse fields, what its aims are, how it is influenced by society and what kinds of social and cultural consequences it may be said to have. The objective is to stimulate students to reflect on their own and others research projects and research fields, in particular with a view to increase their ability to see and diagnose philosophical and ethical problems in the sciences as well as their consciousness of their ethical responsibility. |
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| Course contents |
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| An elementary and introductory course in philosophy of science will give the student a good basis for a better understanding of issues in the main part (research ethics/social responsibility of science), both through illuminating science as a practice form and through its own ethical aim ('good' science). Among the issues to be discussed can be mentioned: The value- and norm systems of science; facts and values; political-economical interests and scientific integrity; research ethical guidelines; duties towards other scientists and research objects; science, technology and society; ethical challenges in developmental research; scientific rationality and scientific methods; scientific realism and social constructivism; metaphors and theory formation; theoretical experience/experimental experience. |
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| Syllabus |
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Course Readings, PHI401 and PHI402
PHI401: Selection from below, ca. 300 pages
PHI402: Selection from below, ca. 600 pages
Textbook (Chapters 9 and 12 may be skipped):
Chalmers, A. What is this thing called Science?, 3rd edition, Open University Press, Buckingham, 1999.
Further material (may be subject to revision):
Cartwright, N. The Dappled World. A Study of the Boundaries of Science, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 1999, Chap. 4.
Cartwright, N. Nature's Capacities and their Measurement. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1989, Chap. 5.
Caruana, Louis. 'Method.' In: Science and Virtue. An Essay on the Impact of the Scientific Mentality on Moral Character, Ashgate, Hampshire, 2006, 33-57.
Collier, A. Critical Realism. An Introduction to Roy Bhaskar's Philosophy, Verso, London, 1994, Chap. 2, 31-51, Chap. 4, 107-120, Chap. 5, 137-169.
Feyerabend, P. Against Method, 3rd ed., Verso, London, 1994, 'Introduction', 9-13, Parts 1-5, 14-53, and Parts 15-19, 147-251.
Geertz, C. 'The Strange Estrangement: Taylor and Natural Sciences.' In: J. Tully (ed.), Philosophy in an Age of Pluralism, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1994, 83-95.
Gibbons, M. 'Science's New Social Contract with Society.' Nature 402/C81, 1999, 11-17.
Hodgson, G. 'Biological and Physical Metaphors in Economics', in S. Maasen, E. Mendelsohn, and P. Weingart (Eds.), Biology as Society, Society as Biology: Metaphors, Kluwer, Dordrecht, 1994, 339-355.
Kuhn, T. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 2nd edition, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1970, Chaps. IX-X.
Kuhn, T. 'Postcript - 1969'. In: The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 3rd ed., University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1996, 174-210.
Maasen, S., 'Who is afraid of Metaphors?' In: S. Maasen, E. Mendelsohn, and P. Weingart (Eds.), Biology as Society, Society as Biology: Metaphors, Kluwer, Dordrecht, 1994, 11-35.
Miller, R. W. 'Value Freedom' excerpted from 'Fact and Method in the Social Sciences.' In: Boyd, R. et al (Eds.), The Philosophy of Science, 1991, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., 744-749.
Nanda, M. 'The Epistemic Charity of the Social Constructivist Critics of Science and Why the Third World Should Refuse the Offer.' In: N. Koertge (Ed.), A House Built on Sand. Exposing Postmodernist Myths about Science, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1998.
Penslar, R. L. Research Ethics. Cases |
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| Last updated |
2012-04-10 |
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