Philosophy of Science

Scientists have worked for the past four centuries to understand the world around them. Science has made significant progress in this period, according to all accounts. Is this real progress or illusion? If it is true, how did this progress happen? These are the important questions that this course, which lasts four weeks, will address. These topics include: how scientists generate knowledge using observations, experiments and simulations; scientific objectivity, failures of scientific objectivity; self-correcting nature and role of the scientific community; positive and negative impacts that values can have upon science; relationship between science, religion; and the role and responsibility of the public in guiding scientific enterprise.