HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE (2)
Philosophy of Science
SECTION A
1 ‘The sole aim and purpose of science is to discover the truth’. Discuss.
SECTION B
2 Has Descartes shown that the senses cannot be a source of knowledge?
3 Either (a) Are primary qualities more real than secondary qualities?

Or (b) Can Berkeley’s idealism be refuted?
4 Either (a) Do causes make their effects happen?

Or (b) Are laws of nature anything more than regularities?
5 How could the past fail to be a guide to the future?
6 Either (a) Are explanations arguments?

Or (b) Does the observation of a white shoe give any support to the hypothesis that
all ravens are black?
7 Either (a) Is there anything right about Popper’s philosophy of science?

Or (b) Does Kuhn show that scientific change is irrational?
8 ‘There is no solution to the problem of natural order without a solution to the problem of
social order’ (STEVEN SHAPIN). Discuss, with reference to a specific case study in the
sociology of scientific knowledge.
9 ‘The only ethical issues that concern the scientist, as a scientist, are issues of scientific
conduct’. Discuss.
10 ‘It could only be useful to describe a chess-playing computer as planning its moves if it
really is. We know that it is not really planning its moves, so it is not useful to describe it as doing
so’. Discuss.