PHL 237 - Philosophy of Science

Course unit(s): 1
Meets GAR (students beginning prior to Fall 2024): Meets general academic requirement HU.
An examination of the goals, methods, and assumptions of modern science. What distinguishes scientific explanations from non-scientific ones? How are scientific theories discovered and confirmed? What criteria of adequacy are used to decide between competing scientific theories? Are all sciences reducible to physics? Has physics proven that the world does not exist independently of our consciousness? Does science give us objective knowledge of the world? Is science a religion?