MSc Program in Philosophy of Scientific
Knowledge
Winter Semester 3h, 6 ECTS
Professor: Olga Pombo
Aims: To
integrate the study of scientific knowledge in the general knowledge process.
To approach the idea of Unity of Science as the central cognitive task of Science.
Contents:
1. Introduction
From theory of knowledge to
philosophy of scientific knowledge
Knowledge and its different substantiations. Tradition, science, technology.
2.
Problems of knowledge in the constitution of knowing
Knowledge
and representation. Ontological and anthropological foundations of knowledge. Subject, object and
representation.
Knowledge
problems and their three levels: genetic, metaphysical, and critical. The
problem of the possibility of knowledge as the radical problem.
Theories
of representation and their epistemological implications. Representation,
symbolism and presentification. Anthropology, semiotics and theory of
consciousness.
3.
Representation and construction of scientific knowledge.
Science
and knowledge progress. Induction, deduction, and abduction. The problem of
induction. Observation and hypothesis.
Intuition, invention, and discovery. Regularities and explanation. Law and
theory.
Truth,
experience, and adequacy. Compatibility, confirmation, and refutation. Truth as
consistency. Virtualities and limitations of Formalism.
4. The problem of the Unity of Science
Topology and functionality in diverse
instantiations of the production of scientific knowledge. Legitimacy,
divulgation, transmission. Cultural and historical features. Interactions and
emergent effects.
Programmes and levels of Unity of Science. Some
exemplary programmes. Unity of Language, unity of methods, unity of laws and
theories.
Configurations of the Unity of Science. Proximities
and asymmetries. Classification as the operator of the configurations of the
Unity of Science. Metaphors of the Unity of Science.
Teaching: Lectures, students presentations and seminary
work
Assessment: seminary work (20%), oral presentation (30%)
and a written work (50%)
Bibliography:
Berkeley (1710) A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge (há trad. port de Vieira de Almeida, Tratado do Conhecimento Humano, Coimbra: Atlantida, 1958)
Descartes (1641) Méditations Philosophiques, In Oeuvres Philosophiques de Descartes, ed. Alquié, Paris: Garnier, 1967, Tomo II, pp. 374 e 1073.
Hume, D. (1739-40) A Treatise of Human Nature, ed. L.A.Selby-Bigge and P.H. Nidditch, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975 (há trad. port. Tratado da Natureza Humana, Lisboa: Serviço de Educação Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, 2001).
Husserl (1907), Die Idee der Phaenomenologie (há trad. port. de Artur Morão, Da Ideia de Fenomenologia, Lisboa: ed. 70, 1986.
Husserl (1931), Kartesianische Meditationem (há trad. port. de Maria da Graça Lopes e Sousa, Meditações Cartesianas. Introdução à Fenomenologia, Porto: Rès, s/d).
Kant (1781), Kritik der reinen Vernunft, (trad. port. de Manuela Pinto dos Santos e Alexandre Fradique Morujão, Crítica da Razão Pura), Lisboa: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, (1985).
Kuhn, T. S. (1962), The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Lakatos, I e Musgrave, A. (1970), Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (há trad. port. de Octávio Mendes Cajado e Pablo Mariconda, A Crítica e o Desenvolvimento do Conhecimento, S. Paulo: Cultrix, 1979).
Leibniz, Nouveaux Essais sur l'Entendement, in Die Philosophischen Schriften von Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Hrsg. von Carl Immanuel Gerhardt, Hildesheim: Olms, 1960, vol. V, pp. 39-503.
Locke, (1689) An Essay concerning Human Understanding, ed. A. D. Woozley, GlasgoW: William Collins, 1964.
Popper (1963), Conjectures and Refutations. The Growth of Scientific Knowledge, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul (há trad. port. de Sergio Bath, Conjecturas e Refutações. O Progresso do Conhecimento Científico, Brasília: Editora da Universidade de Brasília, 1982).
Quine (1954), The Scope and Language of Science (trad. port. de João Sàágua in João Sàágua (org.), W.V. Quine. Filosofia e Linguagem, Porto: Asa, 1995, pp. 19-41.
Quine (1981), Things and their Place in Theories, (trad. port. de Rui K. Silve e João Sàágua in João Sàágua (org.), W.V. Quine. Filosofia e Linguagem, Porto: Asa, 1995, pp. 139-167.
Russell, B. (1912), The Problems of Philosophy, (trad. port. de António Sérgio, Os Problemas da Filosofia, Lisboa: Arménio Amado, 1959).
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