Paper 5: Epistemology and Metaphysics of Science
Also Paper HPS5 in HPT3 Human, Social and Political Sciences Tripos Part IIB and
Paper 6 in PHT1 Philosophy Tripos Part IB
You should answer three questions. All questions carry equal weighting.
You should spend no more than three hours on answering all the questions, and a
word limit is set of no more than 1,500 words per answer.
All your answers for this paper should be submitted in one DOC, DOCX or PDF
document. Each answer should be clearly headed with the question number and the
question.
Put your Blind Grade Number (BGN) at the start of the document. Do not put your
name anywhere in the document.
1. Choose and describe one example of the use of probability in science or in the
philosophy of science. What is the best way to understand that notion of
probability?
2. How can the principles of Bayesian reasoning be used to offer solutions to
problems in the philosophy of science?
3. Are laws the ultimate aim and achievement of science?
4. Can epistemic voluntarism assist in the defence of constructive empiricism?
5. Which explains the success of science better: the truth of theories, or
evolutionary selection?
6. Is the knowledge of structures more secure than other kinds of scientific
knowledge?
7. Does perspectival realism really qualify as realism?
8. How well does the correspondence view of inter-theoretic reduction apply to the
relation between classical genetics and molecular genetics?
9. Are experiments epistemically privileged, either in comparison to simulations,
or in comparison to passive observations?
10. How do models differ from theories?
11. Does string theory qualify as science?
12. What, if anything, do all scientific explanations have in common?