Lecture Materials
Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7 | Week 8 | Week 9 | Week 10
Select lecture materials and notes will be posted here after lectures have occurred at the end of each week. These can be used as a comprehension check.
Week 1: What Is Philosophy?
March 30
- Class Ethos: "You can do the very best you can when you're very, very relaxed. No matter what your job is. The more relaxed you are, the better you are." — Bill Murray, Actor
- Course topics:
- What is science?
- What do scientists do?
- What is a scientific theory?
- What is a theoretical entity?
- What makes a good explanation?
- Mentioned in lecture (optional material)
April 1
- Lecture Slides in HTML, Google Doc, PDF.
- What is Philosophy? (graphic)
- Mentioned in lecture (optional material)
Week 2: Samir Okasha, John Ziman
April 6
- Lecture Slides in HTML, Google Doc, PDF.
April 8
- See select Ziman Quotes from the reading from April 15, below.
Week 3: Karl Popper
April 13
- Example Test Questions from lecture
- Dark Matter, Dark Energy via NASA.
- Dark Matter definition
- Dark Energy definition
- Multiverse Video
- Mentioned in Lecture (optional material)
- What's in a Name: History and Meanings of the Term 'Big Bang' [PDF]
- Obituary of Fred Hoyle, who coined the term 'Big Bang'
- Darkness on the Edge of the Universe by Brian Greene, NY Times, Jan. 15, 2011.
- The universe is expanding at a rate of 74.3 plus or minus 2.1 kilometers (46.2 plus or minus 1.3 miles) per second per megaparsec (a megaparsec is roughly 3 million light-years), which is faster than the speed of light
- Dark Matter mapped at cosmic scale
- Searching for dark matter using a 370 kg liquid xenon time-projection chamber 1 mile under the earth, in the Black Hills of South Dakota.
April 15
- Lecture Slides in HTML, Google Doc, PDF.
- Select Ziman Quotes from the reading
- Select Popper Quotes from the reading
- Mentioned in lecture (optional material)
Week 4: Rudolf Carnap
April 20
- Lecture Slides in HTML, Google Doc, PDF.
- Select Carnap Quotes from reading
- Karl Marx on The Coming Upheaval.
April 22
- Carnap Q&A on Google Doc, PDF
- Carnap Questions without answers
- Kinetic Theory of Gases via NASA
Week 5: Hilary Putnam, N. R. Hanson, W. T. Stace
April 27
- Lecture Slides on Hilary Putnam and N. R. Hanson Google Doc, PDF
- Higgs Boson Image
April 29
- Lecture Slides on W. T. Stace Google Doc, PDF
- Study Guide 1 on Google Doc, PDF
- Hilary Putnam on the Philosophy of Science: Section 1
- Hilary Putnam on the Philosophy of Science: Section 2
- Role of color in Newton's corpuscular theory of light
Week 6: Stephen Toulmin
May 4
- Lecture Slides on Stephen Toulmin on Google Doc and HTML
- Diagram comparing the views of Popper, Carnap, Putnam, Hanson, Stace, and Toulmin
- Brian Cox Builds a Cloud Chamber on BBC Two
Week 7
May 11
- Group Assignment
- Toulmin diagram
- Test 1 Answer Keys: Versions A and B and Version C
May 13
- Maxwell diagram
- Maxwell select quotations
Week 8
May 18
- Guidelines for 20-point portion of Group Project
- Maxwell paragraph-by-paragraph summary as:
May 20
- Matheson and Kline paragraph-by-paragraph summary as:
Week 9
May 27
- Lecture Slides as HTML and a Google Doc.
- Truth & Explanation online and as a PDF.
- Study Guide for Test 2