Making the impossible possible. Understanding scientific progress and scientific methods/Das Unmögliche möglich machen. Wissenschaftlicher Fortschritt und die wissenschaftlichen Methoden

Philosophers of science have long tried to understand the nature of scientific progress given the nature of the scientific method. The course will begin with Duhem’s account of the Aim and Structure of Physical Theory and Popper’s account of The Logic of Scientific Discovery. We will then turn to Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions and Feyerabend’s epistemological anarchist arguments Against Method. After discussing these seminal works, the last few meetings will focus on a selection of more recent papers on the topic of scientific progress and methods of making it. The seminar will be in English.