SubjectsSubjects(version: 996)
Course, academic year 2026/2027
  
   
Selected Topics in Philosophy and the Philosophy of Science - V832002
Title: Vybrané kapitoly z filozofie a filozofie vědy
Form of teaching: lecture
Guaranteed by: Department of Chemical Education and Humanities (832)
Faculty: Central University Departments of UCT Prague
Actual: from 2026
Duration in semesters: 1
Semester: both
Points: 2
E-Credits: 2
Examination process:
Hours per week, examination: 2/0, C [HT]
Capacity: winter:30 / unknown (unknown)
summer:unknown / unknown (unknown)
Maximum number of enrolled students: unlimited
Min. number of students: unlimited
State of the course: taught
Language: Czech
Teaching methods: full-time
Level:  
Repeated enrollment: - / - / - / 9
Note: course can be enrolled in outside the study plan
enabled for web enrollment
you can enroll for the course in winter and in summer semester
Guarantor: Světlík Martin Karel Mgr.
Interchangeability : N832010
Examination dates   Schedule   
This subject contains the following additional online materials
Annotation -
The course focuses on key questions in philosophy and philosophy of science and on their relation to contemporary scientific practice. Teaching combines short thematic lectures, readings of primary texts, moderated discussion, and work with examples from the natural sciences. Students learn to reconstruct arguments, formulate objections, compare different conceptions of scientific knowledge, and defend their own positions.
Last update: Světlík Martin Karel (13.09.2026)
Literature -

Obligatory:

  • René Descartes


    Místo:

    Nakladatel:

    Rok:

    ISBN: 978-80-7298-202-8. Meditationes de prima philosophia = Meditace o první filosofii. Praha: OIKOYMENH, 2015, Med. I,II, part of III s. ISBN 978-80-7298-202-8.

  • David Hume


    . Zkoumání o lidském rozumu. Praha : Svoboda, 1996, s. ISBN 80-205-0521-0.

  • Karl R. Popper


    . Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge. : Routledge, 2002, “Science: Conjectures and Refutations" s. ISBN 978-0-415-28594-0.

  • Thomas S. Kuhn


    . Struktura vědeckých revolucí. Praha: OIKOYMENH, 2022, selected passages s. ISBN 978-80-7298-600-2.

Recommended:

  • Ian Hacking


    . Representing and Intervening: Introductory Topics in the Philosophy of Natural Science. : Cambridge University Press, 1985, s. ISBN 978-0-521-28246-8.

  • Peter Godfrey-Smith

    . Theory and Reality: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Science. : University of Chicago Press, 2021, s. ISBN 978-0-226-61865-4.

  • Naomi Oreskes

    . Why Trust Science?. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2019, s. ISBN 978-0-691-17900-1.

Last update: Světlík Martin Karel (13.09.2026)
Syllabus -

1. 1. What is science? Myth, philosophy, and science; the historical distinctiveness of modern science.

2. Doubt, the subject, and the possibility of objective knowledge – René Descartes.

3. Induction, causality, and the limits of experience – David Hume.

4. Falsification, critical rationalism, and the problem of demarcation – Karl Popper.

5. Normal science, paradigms, and scientific revolutions – Thomas S. Kuhn.

6. Research programmes and methodological pluralism – Imre Lakatos, Paul Feyerabend.

7. Observation, experiment, and the role of theory – Ian Hacking.

8. Scientific explanation – laws, causes, and mechanisms.

9. Models and idealization – the relationship between models and reality.

10. Scientific realism and instrumentalism.

11. Evidence, error, uncertainty, and reproducibility.

12. Objectivity and values in science.

13. The scientific community, expertise, and trust in science.

14. Contemporary problems of scientific knowledge and final synthesis.

Last update: Světlík Martin Karel (13.09.2026)
Learning resources -

Selected primary texts, reading guides, discussion questions, presentations, and other study materials are made available through the UCT Prague e-learning platform.

Last update: Světlík Martin Karel (13.09.2026)
Learning outcomes -

Students will be able to:

Analyse key problems in philosophy and philosophy of science and identify major approaches to their solution.

Reconstruct an argument in a philosophical text and distinguish its thesis, reasons, assumptions, and objections.

Compare different conceptions of scientific knowledge and apply them to examples from the natural sciences.

Formulate, support with arguments, and orally defend their own position.

Critically assess the grounds for accepting scientific claims, including the role of experiment, models, uncertainty, and the scientific community.

Last update: Světlík Martin Karel (13.09.2026)
Registration requirements -

No formal prerequisites are required. Students are expected to be willing to work with philosophical texts in Czech and English and to participate actively in discussion.

Last update: Světlík Martin Karel (13.09.2026)
 
VŠCHT Praha