PHILOS 8
Introduction to Philosophy of Science
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Study of selected problems concerning the character and reliability of scientific understanding, such as nature of scientific theory and explanation, reality of theoretical entities, inductive confirmation of hypotheses, and occurrence of scientific revolutions. Discussion at nontechnical level of episodes from history of science. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 5.0
Units: 5.0
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2017 - Burgess was a lot of fun and conducted his lectures like he was leading us through his own train of thought, which kept almost everyone engaged. Although it was philosophy, Burgess was very aware that he had a lot of non-philosophy majors in class and would periodically make sure the majority was with him every time we learned something new. The material was pretty heady though interesting because I don’t think it’s very common to consider the philosophy of science! I believe there were two papers that made up the majority of your final grade, which was kinda scary and depended a lot on your TA and how helpful they were with your paper.
Winter 2017 - Burgess was a lot of fun and conducted his lectures like he was leading us through his own train of thought, which kept almost everyone engaged. Although it was philosophy, Burgess was very aware that he had a lot of non-philosophy majors in class and would periodically make sure the majority was with him every time we learned something new. The material was pretty heady though interesting because I don’t think it’s very common to consider the philosophy of science! I believe there were two papers that made up the majority of your final grade, which was kinda scary and depended a lot on your TA and how helpful they were with your paper.
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2020 - I feel like this class isn't as easy as most of the reviews make it out to be. The workload is very light but the exams, while they aren't worth a huge chunk of your grade (midterm 10% and final 20%), and while they are short multiple choice exams, definitely aren't the easiest. You HAVE to study. The 4 essays for the class are only 2 pages in length double-spaced which is nice, but you CANNOT go over 2 pages. Therefore, it can be challenging trying to fit as much information possible with only 2 pages to work with. And the essays are graded harshly. Every single detail of your essay matters. Attendance in discussion is 10 percent. In my discussion section, all we did was ask questions about the material. Overall, in my opinion, this class is not bad, but just don't underestimate it. You have to put in effort in order to do well.
Winter 2020 - I feel like this class isn't as easy as most of the reviews make it out to be. The workload is very light but the exams, while they aren't worth a huge chunk of your grade (midterm 10% and final 20%), and while they are short multiple choice exams, definitely aren't the easiest. You HAVE to study. The 4 essays for the class are only 2 pages in length double-spaced which is nice, but you CANNOT go over 2 pages. Therefore, it can be challenging trying to fit as much information possible with only 2 pages to work with. And the essays are graded harshly. Every single detail of your essay matters. Attendance in discussion is 10 percent. In my discussion section, all we did was ask questions about the material. Overall, in my opinion, this class is not bad, but just don't underestimate it. You have to put in effort in order to do well.
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