Università Roma Tre

The course aim at introducing the key questions of the philosophy of science, among these theories of scientific explanation, the nature of scientific method, the relation between hypotheses and evidencea and the cognitive content of scientific theories in light of their historical change . Beyond introducing these general topics by reading the textbook by Dorato, we will read three classics authors of 20th century philosophy of science, namely Karl Popper, Carl Hempel and Rudolf Carnap. We will conclude the course by discussing the problem of the objectivity of scientific knowledge

M. Dorato, Cosa c’entra l’anima con gli atomi? Introduzione alla filosofia della scienza, 1st enlarged edition, Laterza, 2017
K.R. Popper, Scienza e Filosofia, Einaudi, 2000
Carl G. Hempel, Filosofia delle scienze naturali,Il Mulino (some chapters discussed in class and available in the teacher's personal web page), 1972, transl of Philosophy of the natural sciences, Prentice Hall, 1966
Rudolf Carnap, I fondamenti filosofici della fisica ( some chapters discussed in class and available in the teacher's personal web page), Il Saggiatore, transl Philosophical Foundations of Physics, 1966
Paul Boghossian, Fear of knowledge, (some chapters discussed in class and available in the teacher's personal web page), 2006, Oxford University Press.