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Weekly readings of my Philosophy of Science course

Readings from the course I took from Sabancı University in the fall of 2022.

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Recommended readings:
R. Westfall, The Construction of Modern Science. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1971.
A. Chalmers, What is this Thing Called Science? 3rd ed. Indianapolis; Cambridge: Hackett, 1999.
The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Science. (Eds.) S. Psillos and M. Curd. New York: Routledge, 2010.
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Required chapters from the books are as follows:

I. Hypotheses and the Hypothetico-Deductive Method of Testing
C. Hempel, “Scope and Aim of this Book” and “Scientific Inquiry: Invention and Test” (Chapters 1, 2 3), in Philosophy of Natural Science (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1966), pp. 1-32.

II. The Problem of Demarcation and Falsificationism
K. Popper, “Science: Conjectures and Refutations”, in Conjectures and Refutations, Routledge, 2002, pp. 43-51.

III. Statistical-Causal Hypotheses and their Testing
R. Giere, “Chapter 8-Evaluating Causal Hypotheses”, in Understanding Scientific Reasoning, 4th ed. Harcourt Brace College Pub., 1997, pp. 198-243.

IV. Experiment and Scientific Theories
T. Arabatzis, “Experiment”, in The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Science. (Eds.) S. Psillos and M. Curd. New York: Routledge, 2010, pp. 159-172.

V. Scientific Explanation
P. Godfrey-Smith, “Explanation”, in Theory and Reality, The University of Chicago Press, 1977, pp. 190-201.

VI. Scientific Revolutions
T. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, in Philosophy of Science (eds) T. McGrew, M. Alspector-Kelly and F. Allhoff, Wiley-Blackwell, 2009. Read pages 489-505 and 509-510.

VII. Science as a Social Institution and Its Norms
R. Merton, “The Normative Structure of Science” in The Sociology of Science: Theoretical and Empirical Investigations, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1973, pp. 267–78.
D. Resnik, The Price of Truth, Oxford University Press, 2007, pp. 42-51.

VIII. Science or Pseudoscience? Astrology, Parapsychology, Psychoanalysis, and the Search for Extraterrestrial Life
M. Pigliucci, “Not in the Stars: Astrology as Bunk”, in Nonsense on Stilts, The University of Chicago Press, 2010, pp. 62-68.
E. Goode, “Paranormalism and Pseudoscience as Deviance”, in Philosophy of Pseudoscience (eds.) M. Pigliucci and M. Boudry, The University of Chicago Press, 2013, pp. 145-163.
M. Pigliucci, “How Do We Find out if Anybody is out There”, in Nonsense on Stilts, The University of Chicago Press, 2010, pp. 33-40.

IX. Why Should We Trust Science?
N. Oreskes, Why Trust Science?, Princeton: Princeton University Press, pp. 55-64.
P. Kitcher and E. F. Keller, The Seasons Alter. New York: Liveright, pp. 1-19.