Philosophy of Science
You should answer four questions in total. Answer one question from
Section A and three questions from Section B. All questions carry equal
weighting.
Begin each answer on a separate sheet.
Write legibly and on only one side of the paper.
Answers must be tied up in separate bundles, marked 1, 2, 3, etc.
according to the number of the question.
Attach a completed coversheet to each bundle and complete a master
coversheet listing all questions attempted. It is essential that you write
your examination number and not your name on the coversheet and on
each bundle.
You may not start to read the questions printed on the subsequent
pages of this question paper until instructed to do so by the
invigilator.
Page 2 of 2
SECTION A
1. Do metaphysical commitments matter to scientific research?
2. Do models make a difference to the issue of scientific realism?
3. Is the unity of science a good ideal?
SECTION B
4. Compare the relative merits of the No Miracles Argument and the
Pessimistic Meta-Induction in the debate on scientific realism.
5. What, if anything, is the problem with relying on evidence from animal
experiments to make inferences about the effectiveness of medical
interventions in humans?
6. Is the Bayesian model of scientific inference superior to the frequentist
model of scientific inference?
7. Is randomised controlled trial the gold standard of causal inference?
8. “Similarity is neither necessary nor sufficient for scientific representation.”
Discuss.
9. “Any theory in the special sciences is ultimately reducible to a theory in
physics.” Do you agree?
10. Do laws govern phenomena?
11. How, if at all, can idealised models enable learning true facts about
phenomena?
12. Discuss the roles of falsification and confirmation by induction in
scientific reasoning.
13. Does deriving a fact from a law explain this fact?
14. What does modern physics teach us about causation?
15. How, if at all, has modern physics updated our concept of time?