Philosophy 160
Professor Stemwedel
Spring 2004



Reading response questions

1. What do Feigl identify as “the virtues characteristic of science”?  How does he think adopting these virtues in philosophy might result in more meaningful philosophical questions and answers? 
(Due Feb. 10)

2. Consider the claim, “All emeralds are green.”  According to Hempel, is a claim like this testable?  (If so, describe the testing procedure.  If not, explain why not.)  What would he say about whether this claim could be conclusively established? 
(Due Feb. 17)

3. Explain why Popper thinks the problem of induction isn’t a problem for the scientific method. 
(Due Feb. 26)

4. What do Kuhn identify as the key features of “puzzles”?  How do features like these help organize the “puzzle-solving” work of scientific research? 
(Due Mar. 4)

Make-up reading response essay:
In the "inverting lenses" experiment Kuhn describes (p. 112), the data can be described as follows:
Time
 Test subject
 subject sees objects:
 Control
 control sees objects:
0
 no goggles
 right side up
 no goggles
 right side up
t
 goggles for t minutes
 upside down
no goggles
 right side up
t+j
 goggles for t+j min
 right side up
 no goggles
 right side up
t+j+k
 goggles worn for t+j+k min,
then removed
 upside down
no goggles
 right side up

What do these data suggest about our ability to get objective information about the world?  (In particular, what do they indicate about the relation between the data received by a person's sense organs and the "observation" that results?)
(Due Mar. 11)

5. How does Longino think the peer review system could foster more objective scientific knowledge?  In what ways does she think the actual operation of peer review undermines objectivity? 
(Due Apr. 8)

6. Grover Maxwell claims that an anti-realist will deny the existence of theoretical entities.  Explain van Fraassen’s objections to this claim. 
(Due May 4)


Reading Response guidelines
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