Philosophy 5330: Philosophy of Science
Fall, 2026

Professor Joel Velasco
Office: 251C Humanities
Office Hours: M, T, Th 10-11:00 or by appointment

Class meets T, Th, 3:30-4:50 in HUMA 259

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:

Theory and Reality: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Science 2nd edition by Peter Godfrey-Smith. The University of Chicago Press, 2021. (=PGS)

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 - Introduction, Empiricism

Tue, 8/25
- Introduction
Thur, 8/27
- PGS Ch 1,2
- Hempel, Empiricist Criteria of Cognitive Significance: Problems and Changes
Extras
- Schlick, Positivism and Realism
- Carnap, Testability and Meaning, Part 1, Part 2
- Quine, Two Dogmas of Empiricism

Week 2 - Evidence and Induction

Tue, 9/1
- PGS Ch 3
Thur, 9/3
- Hempel, Studies in the Logic of Confirmation, I
- Hempel, Studies in the Logic of Confirmation, 2
Extras:
- Hume, Sections 4 - 7 from Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (link is to whole book)
- Salmon, An Encounter with David Hume
- Goodman, The New Riddle of Induction (Ch 3 of Fact, Fiction, and Forecast)
- Titelbaum, Fundamentals of Bayesian Epistemology 6.1 (on Hempel)

Week 3 - Popper and Falsificationism

Tue, 9/8
- PGS Ch 4
- Popper, Conjectures and Refutations Ch 1
Thur, 9/10
- Salmon, Rational Prediction
Extras:
- Laudan, The Demise of the Demarcation Problem
- Kitcher, Believing where we cannot prove (ch 2 of Abusing Science)
Short essay 1 due Fri, Sept 11

Week 4 - Kuhn and theory choice

Tue, 9/15
- PGS Ch 5
- Kuhn on revolutions (ch 9 of The Structure of Scientific Revolutions)
Thur, 9/16
- Kuhn, Objectivity, Value Judgment and Theory Choice
- Longino, Values and Objectivity (ch 4 of Science as Social Knowledge)
Extras:
- Friedman, Kant, Kuhn, and the Rationality of Science
- Okasha, Theory Choice and Social Choice: Kuhn versus Arrow
- McMullin, Rationality and Paradigm Change in Science (in Curd and Cover anthology)

Week 5 - Responses to Kuhn

Tue, 9/22
- Longino, Values and Objectivity (ch 4 of Science as Social Knowledge)
Thur, 9/24
- PGS chapter 6
- Lakatos, Falsification and the Methodology of Scientific Research Programs (very short snippets)
Extras:
- Lakatos, longer but still shortened version (full version in Lakatos papers)
- Kuhn, Logic of Discovery or Psychology of Research? (in Lakatos and Musgrave)
- Kuhn, Notes on Lakatos

Week 6 - Social structure of science

Tue, 9/29
- PGS chapter 7
- Bloor, Ch 1 of Knowledge and Social Imagery
Thur, 9/2
- Latour and Woolgar, from Laboratory Life (in Schick anthology)
- Latour, On the Partial Existence of Existing and Nonexisting Objects
Extras:
- Kitcher, The Advancement of Science
- Longino, The Fate of Knowledge
- New York Times profile of Latour (2018)
- Bricmont and Sokal, Science and Sociology of Science: Beyond War and Peace
- Kitcher, A plea for science studies
- On the relationship between history and philosophy of science:

Week 7 - Feminist Philosophy and Values in Science

Tue, 10/6
- PGS chapter 8
- Anderson, Uses of Value Judgments in Science: A General Argument with Lessons from a Case Study of Feminist Research on Divorce
Thur, 10/8
- Douglas, Inductive Risk and Values in Science
Extras:

Week 8 - Scientific Realism

Tue, 10/13
- PGS chapter 10
- van Fraassen, The Scientific Image (Ch 1-2)
Thur, 10/15
- Boyd, The Current Status of Scientific Realism (in Leplin, Scientific Realism anthology)
Extras:

Week 9 -

Tue, 10/20
Thur, 10/22
Extras:

Week 10 -

Tue, 10/27
Thur, 10/29
Extras:

Week 11 -

Tue, 11/3
Thur, 11/5
Extras:

Week 12 -

Tue, 11/10
Thur, 11/12
Extras:

Week 13 -

Tue, 11/17
Thur, 11/19
Extras:

Week 14 -

Tue, 11/24
Thur, 11/26
- No class - Thanksgiving
Extras:

Week 15 -

Tue, 12/1 - last day of class

Extras:

final paper due