6 ECTS credits
165 h study time
Offer 1 with catalog number 4018301FER for all students in the 1st semester at a (F) Master - specialised level.
In this specialized course, students will be familiarized with the history and philosophy of scientific methodologies. Science, as will be shown throughout the course, comprises more than its empirical and theoretical dimensions. Scientific thought and practice also contain a methodological dimension that, considered retrospectively, codifies how we have learned to learn about the empirical world. Methodological practices and views have a history of their own and it is this history that will occupy centre-stage in this course. The focus of this course will be on the methodological developments within seventeenth- to mid-nineteenth-century physics. The methodological practices and views of the following figures (amongst others) will be addressed: Francis Bacon, René Descartes, Robert Hooke, Robert Boyle, J. B. van Helmont, Galileo Galilei, Isaac Newton, John S. Mill and William Whewell. Particular attention will be devoted to Newton's sophisticated Principia-style methodology. In this course it will be explained that there is no such thing as a universally applicable scientific method, but instead a plethora of different methodological instruments that each have their own strengths and limitations.
Reader that contains state-of-the-art literature and historical case-studies. The reader and slides are available via CANVAS at the start of the course. The parts on Newton's methodology are based on Steffen Ducheyne, "The main Business of Natural Philosophy": Isaac Newton's Natural-Philosophical Methodology (Dordrecht, Springer: 2012). Students do NOT need to purchase this book, as it is available in both material form (class mark: 141.1 N NEWT DUCH 2012; URL=<https://biblio.vub.ac.be/iguana/www.main.cls?surl=search&p=f88fe9ec-2425-11e7-a7e4-90084dd7a2c4#recordId=3.470380&srchDb=3_UB01>) and electronic form in the university library (URL=<https://biblio.vub.ac.be/iguana/www.main.cls?surl=search&p=f88fe9ec-2425-11e7-a7e4-90084dd7a2c4#recordId=3.488616&srchDb=3_UB01>).
- The student is able to provide a comprehensive overview of long-term shifts within seventeenth- to nineteenth-century scientific methodology.
- The student is able to explain the methodological views and/or practices of the figures addressed in the reader in a detailed way and to compare them insightfully.
- The student can identify (the significance of) Newton's Principia-style methodology and critically evaluate how it differs from a standard hypothetico-deductive approach.
- The student is able to illustrate how certain branches of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century physics were predicated on Newton's Principia-style methodology.
- The student is able to clarify the 'inductive' methodologies of John S. Mill and William Whewell and to provide a detailed overview of their differences.
The final grade is composed based on the following categories:
Oral Exam determines 100% of the final mark.
Within the Oral Exam category, the following assignments need to be completed:
The oral exam with written preparation determines 100% of the grades.
This offer is part of the following study plans:
Master of Philosophy and Moral Sciences: Ethics and Humanism (only offered in Dutch)
Master of Philosophy and Moral Sciences: Philosophy (only offered in Dutch)
Research Master of Philosophy: Standaard traject
Master of Teaching in Arts and Humanities: History (only offered in Dutch)
Master of Teaching in Arts and Humanities: Art History and Heritage Studies (only offered in Dutch)
Master of Teaching in Arts and Humanities: Philosophy (only offered in Dutch)
Master of Teaching in Arts and Humanities: Ethics and Humanism (only offered in Dutch)