Philosophy 2330:
Science and Society
Spring, 2022

Professor Joel Velasco
Office: 251C (Eng/phil building)
Office Hours T, W, Th 11-12:00 or by appointment

Class meets T, Th, 9:30-10:50 (in Phil 163)

All of the boilerplate information such as course policies and the grading scheme can be found on the syllabus. The readings for the course are below.

Syllabus

Required Books:

Religion and the Sciences of Origins: Historical and Contemporary Discussions by Kelly James Clark. Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.

A Tapestry of Values: An Introduction to Values in Science by Kevin Elliott. Oxford University Press, 2017.

All class assignments and any other readings will be found on this website. You should check this website reguarly for updates and bring copies of the assigned readings to class. All readings should be done before the date they are listed here. Come to class on that day prepared to discuss them.

This is a tentative schedule/reading list:

Week 1 -

Thur, 1/13
- Introduction
Extras

Week 2 -

Tue, 1/18
- Okasha, Ch 1 of Philosophy of Science: A Very Short Introduction
- Clark, Religion and the Sciences of Origins Ch 1, Ch2
Thur, 1/20
- Gould, NOMA defined and defended
- Dawkins, You can't have it both ways: Irreconcilable differences?
- NOTES FROM CLASS
Extras:
- Concepcion, How to read philosophy (the appendix especially)
- Popper, Conjectures and Refutations (short version)
- Popper, Conjectures and Refutations (all of chapter 1)
- Gould, Nonoverlapping Magisteria

Week 3 -

Tue,1/25
- Clark, Ch 3
- Atkins, The Limitlessness of Science
- NOTES FROM CLASS
Thur,1/27
- DeWitt, Worldviews (chs 1, 9, 10) (on blackboard)
- hybrid class (online and in person) - zoom link on blackboard
Extras:
- Russell, The Conflict of Science and Religion
- Worrall and Ratzsche - Does Science Discredit Religion?
- DeWitt, Worldviews: An Introduction to the History and Philosophy of Science (Blackboard)

Week 4 -

Tue, 2/1
- short essay #1 due (example essay on a different, but similar, assignment)
- DeWitt, The Ptolemaic System (ch 13 from Worldviews)
- You tube video of retrograde motion
- Singham, The Copernican Myths
- DeWitt, The Copernican System (ch 14 from Worldviews)
Thur, 2/3
- Class canceled due to winter weather
Extras:
- Aaber, What every young person ought to know about naked-eye astronomy (ch 0 of Episodes from the Early History of Astronomy)
- Excerpts from Kuhn, The Copernican Revolution (the problem of the planets)
- Excerpts from Kuhn, The Copernican Revolution (Copernican astronomy - the sun)

Week 5 -

Tue, 2/8
- Ptolemy vs. Copernicus (the reading and video from last week)
Thur, 2/10
- DeWitt, Galileo and the Evidence from the Telescope
- Clark Ch 4
Extras:
- PBS Nova documentary, Galileo's Battle for the Heavens
- Lindberg, Galileo, the Church, and the Cosmos
- Gingerich, Truth in Science: Proof, Persuasion, and the Galileo Affair
- Gingerich, The Galileo Affair
- McMullin, Galileo on Science and Scripture

Week 6 -

Tue, 2/15
- short essay #2 due
- Bellarmine, Letter to Foscarini
- Galileo, Letter to Grand Duchess Christina
Thur, 2/17
Extras:

Week 7 -

Tue, 2/22
- Mid-term in-class Exam BRING A BLUE BOOK (Study guide)
Thur, 2/24
- Clark Ch 5
Extras:
- Paley, from Natural Theology
- All of the Origin of Species
- Biologos - on interpreting Genesis (theistic evolution account)
- Biologos - on the Flood (theistic evolution account)
- Answers in Genesis - on Genesis (young earth creationism account)

Week 8 -

Tue, 3/1
- Plantinga, When Faith and Reason Clash: Evolution and the Bible
Thur, 3/3
- Clark Ch 6
- Slides for class today and Tue (no need to look at these ahead of time)
Extras:
- Published dialogue on Plantinga's Faith and Reason paper
- Plantinga, Methodological Naturalism
- McDonald and Tro, In Defense of Methodological Naturalism
- Joel's second debate with Paul Nelson (of the Discovery Institute) about common ancestry
- Gish, Creation, evolution, and the historical Evidence

Week 9 - Evidence for Evolution

Tue, 3/8
- short essay #3 due
- Dobzhansky, Nothing in Biology makes sense except in the light of evolution
- Clark Ch 6
- Slides for class today and Tue (no need to look at these ahead of time)
Thur, 3/10
Extras:
- Dilley, Nothing in Biology makes sense except in the light of Theology?
- Nelson, The role of theology in current evolutionary reasoning

SPRING BREAK

Week 10 -

Tue, 3/22
- final day on evidence for evolution (genetics)
Thur, 3/24
- Behe, The Modern Intelligent Design Hypothesis: Breaking Rules
- Orr, Darwin vs. Intelligent Design (again) [review of Behe's Darwin's Black Box]
Extras:
- Behe, Molecular Machines (here is an older version that has the pictures referred to plus some citation notes)
- Behe, irreducible complexity - obstacle to Darwinian evolution
- Miller, The collapse of Intelligent Design (Ken Miller talk on youtube)
- Sober, What’s wrong with ID
- Sober, from Core Questions in Philosophy(The design argument, Evolution and Creationism and reading from Paley and Hume)

Week 11 -

Tue, 3/29
- short essay #4 due by Wed night
- Clark Ch 7 (especially 97-104)
- Numbers, Scientific Creationism and Intelligent Design
- PBS Nova, Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial [no need to watch ahead of time - we will watch clips in class]
Thur, 3/31
- I will be showing some slides from this much longer lecture: science and testability
- Youtube video of the class where I went through those slides: video [discussion of the court cases is roughly minutes 15-46].
Extras:
- Kitcher, Believing where we cannot prove (ch 2 of Abusing Science)
- Ruse, Creation Science is not Science (pdf of all three)
- Laudan, Commentary: Science at the Bar: Causes for Concern
- Ruse, Response to the Commentary: Pro Judice
- Inherit the Wind movie (not all that historically accurate)
- PBS American Experience - Monkey Trial
- PBS Nova, Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial
- PBS, The Revisionaries (about the Texas School board textbook fights)
- Plutynski, Should Intelligent Design be taught in schools?
- Nagel, Public education and intelligent design

Week 12 -

Tue, 4/5
- Mid-term in-class Exam BRING A BLUE BOOK (Study guide)
Thur, 4/7
- Begin reading Elliott, A Tapestry of Values - Chapter 1
Extras:

Week 13 - Values in Science

Tue, 4/12
- Elliott, A Tapestry of Values - Chapter 2
Thur, 4/14
- Elliott, A Tapestry of Values - Chapter 4
Extras:
- Chapter 3

Week 14 - Values in Science

Tue, 4/19
- Elliott, A Tapestry of Values - Chapters 4+5
Thur, 4/21
- Elliott, A Tapestry of Values - Chapter 5
- short essay #5 due
Extras:

Week 15 - Values in Science

Tue, 4/26
- Elliott, A Tapestry of Values - Chapter 5
Thur, 4/28
- visit from Dr. Brad Snodgrass
Extras:

Week 16 - Values in Science

Mon/Tue, 5/2,5/3
- No class - tutorials instead in Room251B
- Tutorial Assignment
Extras:

Final paper due Saturday, May 7th