FI:V008 Philosophy of Science II

V008 Philosophy of Science II

Faculty of Informatics
Spring 1997

Extent and Intensity

2/0. 2 credit(s). Recommended Type of Completion: k (colloquium). Other types of completion: z (credit).

Teacher(s)

prof. PhDr. Ing. Miloslav Dokulil, DrSc. (lecturer)

Guaranteed by

Contact Person: prof. PhDr. Ing. Miloslav Dokulil, DrSc.

Prerequisites (in Czech)

Pro účely kolokvia není nutné absolvovat kurs V007 Philosophy of Science I, pro zkoušku je to žádoucí.

Course Enrolment Limitations

The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.

fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with

Syllabus

Evolutionary theory in the history of human thinking. Darwin.
The way to the deductive-nomological and inductive-statistical modellings.
Individualism, holism and the problems of being objective in social sciences.
Inductivism as a problem. Conventionalism.
New paradigms on the horizon? (From Einstein to Kuhn?)
The "Why?"-question. The logic of questions. - Description as against explanation. - The pragmatics of explantion.
Some general questions of the theory of science from the beginning of the Eighties. Some views concerning reductionism.
Probabilistic causality. Explanation by means of laws?
Artificial intelligence.
Sociobiology.
Theory vs. laws? The importance of deduction. Is the structure of the world not causal, all the same? - The "theory of all"?

Language of instruction

Czech