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Vår 2017
SVF-8600 Philosophy of science and ethics - 6 stp
The course is administrated by
Type of course
Course overlap
Course contents
Application deadline
PhD students registered to PhD program at UiT: Apply for admission by registering for class in StudentWeb before 10 January 2017.
Those who are granted admission to the course register for exam in Studentweb by 1 February.
Admission requirements
Contact Ingjerd Gauslaa Nilsen (Ingjerd.nilsen@uit.no) at the BFE-faculty if you have troubles or questions regarding registration to the course.
Objective of the course
By the end of the course students will be expected to understand:
- the basic issues in the philosophy of science, such as the demarcation problem, the debate among competing accounts of the scientific method, the problem of induction, and the concepts of paradigms and scientific revolutions;
- the role and place of science and technology in a modern society;
- various ethical positions and the main ethical issues relating to science.
By the end of this course students will be expected to have gained the following skills:
- the ability to communicate key philosophical and ethical concepts;
- the ability to engage in contemporary debates about the nature and role of science;
- the ability to see their own research in a wider perspective, and to critically reflect upon the basic assumptions and challenges of their research projects.
Language of instruction
Teaching methods
Teaching runs as an intensive course over two weeks with 20 hours of lectures and 12 hours of group discussions and seminars.
The course will be held from 30 January - 10 February 2017 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 09:15 am - 04:00 pm. On the first Wednesday, there will be a social gathering and the programme will last until 7 pm.
NB! You have to participate in at least 80 % of the teaching to be allowed to take the exam. Attendance at lectures will be registered.
Assessment
Home exam: A written essay of 10 pages to be completed about one month after the course. Grade: pass or fail.
Coursework requirements: Two short exercises.
Recommended reading/syllabus
The required reading consists of journal articles and book chapters, in total about 350-400 pages. Most of the literature will be made available on Fronter prior to the course start.
All students are advised to read one of the following books before the course starts:
- Samir Okasha (2002): Philosophy of science: A very short introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Tim Lewens (2015): The Meaning of Science. London: Pelican Books.