HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE (2)
Philosophy of Science
Answer the question in Section A and three questions chosen from Section B
SECTION A
1 Is scientific inquiry common sense in disguise?
SECTION B
2 EITHER (a) What do the sceptical arguments of Descartes tell us about the
nature of inquiry?
OR (b) Does the past track record of our inductive methods bear on their
future prospects?
3 EITHER (a) Where are colours?
OR (b) Do scientific theories describe reality or solely allow us prediction
and control?
4 EITHER (a) What is the connection between causes and counterfactuals?
OR (b) Are the laws of nature necessary truths?
5 What is a rigid designator? Are there any? What difference does it make?
6 ‘Insofar as understanding why is different from knowing that, science has no need
for understanding why.’ Discuss.
7 Does the Kuhnian notion of an exemplar illuminate scientific practice?
8 EITHER (a) Has Popper shown that negative evidence is more important than
positive evidence?
OR (b) Do the positive instances of a hypothesis confirm it?
9 EITHER (a) ‘Probability is the subjective level of conviction of a certain
individual regarding the occurrence of a specific event.’ Do you agree?
OR (b) To what extent is mathematics inductive?
10 Is right conduct in research the only ethical concern for the scientist or do
scientists have ethical responsibility for the uses to which science is put?
11 EITHER (a) ‘Space by itself, and time by itself, are mere shadows, and only a
kind of union of the two has an independent reality’ (HERMANN MINKOWSKI,
1906). Discuss.
OR (b) Explain what is meant by the measurement problem in quantum
mechanics. How does it arise, and how has it been proposed that it might be solved?