VB007 Philosophy of Science I

Faculty of Informatics
Autumn 2022
Extent and Intensity
2/0. 2 credit(s) (plus extra credits for completion). Type of Completion: z (credit).
Teacher(s)
prof. PhDr. Ing. Miloslav Dokulil, DrSc. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
prof. PhDr. Ing. Miloslav Dokulil, DrSc.
Department of Machine Learning and Data Processing – Faculty of Informatics
Contact Person: prof. PhDr. Ing. Miloslav Dokulil, DrSc.
Supplier department: Department of Machine Learning and Data Processing – Faculty of Informatics
Timetable
Wed 8:00–9:50 A319
Prerequisites
The course presupposes some interest in general problems of science (as knowledge of the world and life in it). It is recommended to follow by Philosophy of Science II. We should at last understand this intellectula evolution as a breathtaking "exponential" of this time.(In the preceding years, the "talk-show" method has been applied for the introduction of new contemporaneous knowledge as being systematically integrated.)
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
The capacity limit for the course is 52 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 2/52, only registered: 0/52, only registered with preference (fields directly associated with the programme): 0/52
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
Science is a specific activity of man. It covers induction, deduction, category of quantity, causality, criteria of verification since the beginning of the 17th century till the start of the 20th century, to enable an understanding of the exponential development of science beginning in the 20th century.
Learning outcomes
The student will thereby have a better understanding and interpretation of the exponential develompent of science in the 20th and 21st centuries. Science as a sspecific institution started to slowly exist beginning in the 16th and 17th centuries; which the student will be able to compare with our contemporaneity.
Syllabus
  • Introduction: "Time boundaries" in general.
  • Birth of science as a modern phenomenon, its problems, methods and criteria. Presuppositions to a "paradigmatically" new perspective to the world and human tradition.
  • The geocentric problem as a confrontation of sensual absurdity with the necessity of adequately describing it and thus enabling its prediction. (From scholastic solutions to a definite break with the Aristotelian tradition.)
  • From sublunar steps to the first big jump into the supralunar world.
  • What, and how, is reality? Is its adequate clue empirism, or rationalism?
  • Encyclopedia as a product of Enlightenment.
  • Hume's skepsis over causality. Laws and probability.
  • Physiocratism as a projection of an "harmonic order", at the same time as a first model application in economics.
  • The positivist experiment in trying to change the world by the force of ideas. The initial variants of physicalism.
  • Problem of humanities at the end of 19-th century. (Is it possible to apply the natural-science criteria in humanities?)
  • "Rationally" fighting "fiction", or does the invisible exist?
  • Einstein's and Planck's shade.
  • An awkward look back and forward on the threshold of the third millennium.
  • The beginning of the philosophy of science.
Literature
  • Literatura se zadává průběžně během jednotlivých lekcí.
Teaching methods
Successive explanation based on texts to be accessed electronically); the lesson is regularly introduced by some updating (news from the world od science, anniversaries). To be exhorted to think about the knowledge spoken should mean more than reading some text on the blackboard behind the back of the lecturer.
Assessment methods
2 credits after submitting 1 essay.
Language of instruction
Czech
Follow-Up Courses
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
Study Materials
The course is taught annually.
The course is also listed under the following terms Autumn 2002, Autumn 2003, Autumn 2004, Autumn 2005, Autumn 2006, Autumn 2007, Autumn 2008, Autumn 2009, Autumn 2010, Autumn 2011, Autumn 2012, Autumn 2013, Autumn 2014, Autumn 2015, Autumn 2016, Autumn 2017, Autumn 2018, Autumn 2019, Autumn 2020, Autumn 2021, Autumn 2023.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Autumn 2022, recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/fi/autumn2022/VB007