11338 - Epistemology

Learning outcomes

Epistemology aims at clarifying the nature and methods of scientific knowledge. The course will provide both an introduction to general topics and methodological issues, and a deeper analysis of some of the currently most widely debated topics. The discussion of some introductory material and some original papers will provide students with the fundamental conceptual tools to understand two of the widest current debates, that on scientific explanation and that on causation.

Course contents

The first set of lectures (first 30 hours) will analyse the most relevant approaches to scientific explanation: covering law models, causal explanation, the unificatory approach, the pragmatics of explanation. The analysis of such approaches will lead also to the discussion of other, connected, issues, such as the nature and role of scientifc explanation, the relation between explanation and prediction, the concept of function.

The second set of lecture will consider the contemporary debate on causation. The probabilistic, mechanical, manipulative and counterfactual approaches will be discussed. Special attention will be devoted to the relations between the theories beloning to such general approaches and scientific practice. 

Students who are taking Epistemology (10 credits) must attend both sets of lectures. Students who are taking Epistemology (1) (5 credits) are supposed to choose the first half of the course, but can contact Dr. Campaner to agree on taking the second half.

The first set of lectures will start on 1st October 2008; the second set of lectures will start on 26th November 2008. All lectures will take place in Via Centotrecento, Room E, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, from 1pm to 3pm.  

Readings/Bibliography

Exam main text for the first set of lectures is W. Salmon, 40 anni di spiegazione scientifica, Padova, Franco Muzzio Ediore, 1992, pp. 1-42; 48-69; 83-144; 182-277; 297-307. Italian translation of: W. Salmon, Four Decades of Scientific Explanation, in Salmon and Kitcher, eds., Scientific Explanation, 1989) and G. Boniolo and P. Vidali, Filosofia della scienza, Mondadori, 1999, pp. 504-540 ("Il problema delle leggi di natura"). Further suggested (not compulsory) readings are: S. Psillos, Causation and Explanation, Acumen, 2002, ch. II, sections 5 and 7, and ch. III, sections 8 and 9.

Exam main text for the second set of lectures is R. Campaner (ed.), La causalità tra filosofia e scienza, pp. 75-223 e pp. 236-246. Suggested reading, especially for those not attending lectures, is the introductory essay to the volume  (pp. 1-51). Furter suggested (not compulsory!) readings is S. Psillos, Causation and Explanation, Acumen, 2002, ch. I, sections 3 and 4.

Assessment methods

The exam will be a two hour written test. The student will be asked to answer two open questions. Students who are taking 10 credits can choose whether to give the whole program together (four answers in two hours) or split it into two (two answers in two hours, on the first and then the second set of lectures). Provided he/she passes the written test, the student will sit an oral test in the days just after the written part.

Office hours

See the website of Raffaella Campaner