ID:
500066
Duration (hours):
72
CFU:
12
SSD:
LOGICA E FILOSOFIA DELLA SCIENZA
Year:
2025
Overview
Date/time interval
Secondo Semestre (23/02/2026 - 22/05/2026)
Syllabus
Course Objectives
The course introduces students to key issues arising from the diverse philosophical interpretations of the significance, historical development, and value of science.
It provides an overview of fundamental topics in the philosophy of science, such as the claim that scientific knowledge is objective, the distinction between science and non-science, and the methodological differences among disciplines. The course also aims to enhance students’ critical reasoning about technology and applied sciences, while developing their ability to discuss scientific progress, its possibilities, and its limitations.
Course Prerequisites
General knowledge about the history of philosophical thought.
Teaching Methods
Lectures, case studies, seminars, and flipped-classroom.
Assessment Methods
Oral exams. Firstly, the student will be asked to present a topic of their choice from the textbook "What is this thing called science?" and then answer a question regarding the topic just presented. After that, the student will be asked to respond to two questions: one on the concept of abduction, taken from "Abduction, Reason and Science," and one on Feminist Epistemology or Ethics of Technology. Finally, the student will be asked to present a topic of their choice from one of the two texts presented in the seminars, "Understanding Violence" or "Philosophy and Theory of Artificial Intelligence 2021." Different examination arrangements will be made for students who request an alternative bibliography and for those who present a chapter from the two texts considered in the seminars.
Texts
General part
1. Chalmers, A. F. (1999) What is This Thing Called Science?, Third Edition, Hackett, Indianapo-lis/Cambridge (chapters 1 - 9).
2. Magnani, L. (2001) Abduction, Reason, and Science. Processes of Discovery and Explanation, Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York (chapters 1 - 7).
_________________________________________________________________________________
Feminist Epistemology and Ethics of Technology
3. D’Ignazio C., e Klein, L. F. (2020) “Introduction: Why Data Science Needs Feminism” in Data Feminism, MIT Press, Boston.
4. Hildebrandt, Mireille (2020): Smart technologies, Internet Policy Review, 9(4), pp. 1-16. _________________________________________________________________________________
Seminars on “Philosophy of Technology” e “Epistemology and Naturalization of Violence":
5. Müller, V.C. (ed.) (2022) Philosophy and Theory of Artificial Intelligence 2021. Cham: Springer International Publishing.
6. Magnani, L. (2011) Understanding Violence. The Intertwining of Morality, Religion and Violence: A Philosophical Stance, Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Further details about which parts of the books and articles students need to study for the exam will be provided during classes. Any student who does not attend classes must contact the teacher to obtain the final program for the exams. Students are allowed to change one of the aforementioned texts with another one of particular interest, upon agreement with the professor.
Contents
The class will cover general topics of philosophy of science, philosophy and ethics of technology, feminist epistemology and epistemology of ignorance. In particular, the class will propose critical discussions around the following issues:
• The distinction between science and pseudoscience
• The role of inductive, deductive, abductive reasoning in science
• Theory, observations, experiments
• Methodological differences between hard, applied, and human sciences
• Scientific models, realism, and antirealism
• The process of scientific discovery
• The role of ignorance in scientific research
• Scientific objectivity and its limits
• Epistemic and non-epistemic values in science
• Artificial intelligence, smart technologies, and data science
• Ethics of autonomous machines
• The role of minorities in the scientific progress
Course Language
Italian
More information
The class will also include seminars about Philosophy of Technology, and the Epistemology and Naturalization of Violence.
Degrees
Degrees
PHILOSOPHY
Bachelor’s Degree
3 years
No Results Found