SCIENCE STUDIES INTRODUCTORY SEMINAR HIGR 238 / PHIL 209A / SOC 255A Fall 1996 Tuesdays, 9:00 am - 11:50 am Humanities & Social Sciences Building, Room 3009 Prof. Sandra Mitchell Prof. Steven Epstein Dept. of Philosophy Dept. of Sociology Mail code: 0119 Mail code: 0533 Phone: 534-6808 Phone: 534-0489 smitchel@helix.ucsd.edu sepstein@helix.ucsd.edu Science occupies an incontestably central place in contemporary life. This course charts the development of recent attempts to understand the character, the authority, and the constitution of scientific knowledge. The syllabus uses Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962) to mark a major transition in philosophical, sociological and historical studies of science. The course begins with readings of early- to mid-twentieth-century work in these disciplines to set the context for Kuhn's challenge. The course ends with discussion of some of the central themes in science studies today, all of which have been influenced by, or have taken shape in reaction to, Kuhn's claims. These themes include the dimensions of scientific practice; the relation of theory and observation; objectivity; rationality; and credibility. This course is a core requirement for first-year graduate students in the Science Studies Program. In addition we welcome interested graduate students from any department who wish to attend the seminar. REQUIRED TEXTS: One book is required for the course and is available at Groundworks Bookstore in the old student center: Thomas S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 2nd ed. (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1970; orig. publ. 1962). All other course readings are found in the course reader, which may be purchased at Cal Copy, 8657 Villa La Jolla Dr. #115. SCHEDULE OF READINGS BY WEEK Week 1 (October 1): Introduction Overview of the course and discussion of recent public debates about science studies. NOTE: To prepare for this discussion, please pick up readings on the Sokal Hoax controversy from the Science Studies Program office. Week 2 (October 8): The Sociology of Science Tradition Robert K. Merton, "Science and the Social Order" [1938] and "The Normative Structure of Science" [1942], in Merton, The Sociology of Science: Theoretical and Empirical Investigations (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1973), 254-278. Jonathan R. Cole and Stephen Cole, "Discrimination against Women and Minorities in American Science," in Social Stratification in Science (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1973), 123-160. Edgar Zilsel, "The Sociological Roots of Modern Science," American Journal of Sociology 47 (1942): 245-279. Week 3 (October 15): The History of Science Tradition George Sarton, "The History of Science and the History of Civilization," in Sarton, The History of Science and the New Humanism (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books, 1988; orig. publ. 1962), 3-58. Alexandre Koyr‚, "Galileo and Plato" [1943] in Koyr‚, Metaphysics and Measurement: Essays in Scientific Revolution (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press, 1968), 16-43. Week 4 (October 22): The Philosophy of Science Tradition Rudolf Carnap, "The Task of the Logic of Science" [1934] in The Unity of Science, ed. B. McGuinness (Dordrecht: Reidel, 1987), 46-66. Carl G. Hempel, Philosophy of Natural Science (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1966), 1-46. Karl R. Popper, "Science: Conjectures and Refutations," in Popper, Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge (New York: Harper & Row, 1963), 33-65. Week 5 (October 29): Revolutions Thomas S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 2nd ed. (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1970; orig. publ. 1962). READ ENTIRE BOOK. Week 6 (November 5): Relativism, Incommensurability, and Rationality (I) Imre Lakatos, "Falsification and the Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes" [1970] and "History of Science and Its Rational Reconstructions" [1971], in Lakatos, Philosophical Papers, Vol. I (Cambridge, England: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1978), 8-139. Larry Laudan, "Two Puzzles about Science: Reflections on Some Crises in Philosophy and Sociology of Science" and "Dissecting the Holist Picture of Scientific Change," in Laudan, Science and Values: The Aims of Science and Their Role in Scientific Debate (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1984), 1-22 and 67-102 Week 7 (November 12): Relativism, Incommensurability and Rationality (II) Barry Barnes, "Sociological Explanation and Natural Science: A Kuhnian Reappraisal," Archives Europ‚enes de Sociologie 13 (1972): 373-393. Mary Hesse, "The Strong Thesis of Sociology of Science," in Hesse, Revolutions and Reconstructions in the Philosophy of Science (Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press, 1980), 29-60. Donald MacKenzie and Barry Barnes, "Scientific Judgment: The Biometry-Mendelism Controversy," in Barry Barnes and Steven Shapin, eds., Natural Order: Historical Studies of Scientific Culture (Beverly Hills: Sage, 1979), 191-210. Week 8 (November 19): Observation, Laboratories, and Experiments Harry Collins, "The Seven Sexes: A Study in the Sociology of a Phenomenon," Sociology 9 (1975), 205-224. Simon Schaffer, "Glass Works: Newton's Prisms and the Uses of Experiment," from David Gooding, Trevor Pinch, Simon Schaffer, eds., The Uses of Experiment (Cambridge, England: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1989), 67-103. Ian Hacking, "The Self-Vindication of the Laboratory Sciences," in Andrew Pickering, ed., Science as Practice and Culture (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1992), 29- 64. Week 9 (November 26): Historical Studies of Objectivity Theodore M. Porter, "Objectivity as Standardization: The Rhetoric of Impersonality in Measurement, Statistics, and Cost-Benefit Analysis," in Allan Megill, ed., Rethinking Objectivity (Durham, NC: Duke Univ. Press, 1994), 197-238. Lorraine Daston and Peter Galison, "The Image of Objectivity," Representations 40 (Fall 1992): 81-108. M. Norton Wise, "Mediations: Enlightenment Balancing Acts, or the Technologies of Rationalism," in Paul Horwich, ed., World Changes: Thomas Kuhn and the Nature of Science (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1993), 207-256. Week 10 (December 3): Authority and Expertise Bruno Latour, "Give Me a Laboratory and I Will Raise the World," in Karin D. Knorr- Cetina and Michael Mulkay, eds., Science Observed: Perspectives on the Social Study of Science (London: Sage, 1983), 141-70. H. M. Collins, "Certainty and the Public Understanding of Science: Science on Television," Social Studies of Science 17 (1987): 689-713. Naomi Oreskes, "Objectivity or Heroism? On the Invisibility of Women in Science," Osiris, forthcoming 1996. Philip Kitcher, "Authority, Deference, and the Role of Individual Reason," in Ernan McMullin, ed., The Social Dimensions of Science (Univ. of Notre Dame Press, 1992), 244-71.