Natural and Social Sciences

Philosophy of science is the realm in which natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities can meet to expose the basic foundations of the human-being-in the world. As a philosophical inquiry into the nature of science and its “truth,” this field deals with the ultimate goals of scientific knowledge and practice. It has become an essential tool to understand human knowledge as a changing and active whole.

This core course is to present a panoramic history of modern science, it aims to explore the philosophical premises that differentiate it from the “Old Knowledge,” “Metaphysics” “Pseudoscience” and all other modes of human knowledge to ask what is science? And how humanities and social sciences can fit within its criteria. Focusing on the evolution of sociology of scientific knowledge and philosophy of science during the twentieth century, it aims at elaborating the main schools of science as a social activity. The course shall touch on positivism, post-positivism, and critical realism within the larger controversies of modernity and postmodernity. Throughout these debates, some lights will be shed on the ideas and arguments of figures like Karl Popper and Thomas Kuhn. The last part of the course will be a reflective exercise on the ever-present issues of ethics of scientific practices, the critique of scientific methods, language and scientific inquiry, and the role of economy and “power” in creating and sharpening the relations between scientific knowledge and social interests.

By the end of the course, the students shall be aware of the basic foundation of scientific knowledge. Also, they shall able to explore the current state of philosophy of science in the light of ongoing technological and ideological shifts and be able to question the validity of scientific truth, progress, objectivity, even the utility of science in creating a better world by using critical tools and multiple lenses.