Science Wars: What Scientists Know and How They Know It
Before this course I thought that what we know of science is one of the few things we know for certain. But that may not necessarily be the case. In this course Professor Steven L. Goldman turns the whole concept of knowledge derived from scientific methods on its head. Starting 2400 years ago with an examination of Plato’s allegory between the gods and the earth giants Professor Goldman walks the student through the history of scientific knowledge and how widely accepted theories have been replaced again and again and even their replacements have been superseded.
As part of his lecture series he includes an excellent piece on logical fallacies and inductive versus deductive reasoning. Along similar lines the lecture on how theories represent reality and the purpose of predictability points out that just because something predicts a result regularly and accurately does not mean that the theory is correct. It only correctly predicts an outcome. Complex theories of how the stars moved around the earth and the earth stood still did predict accurately where the stars would be, but they were not correct no matter how accurate they were.
Since all scientific theories of reality are regularly revised there is a real question as to what constitutes reality and this lecture series illustrates this problem beautifully. With extensive notes, a glossary and biographical notes on the people discussed in the lectures the supporting outlines and lecture transcripts are great study aides. Science Wars: What Scientists Know and How They Know It is highly recommended and a great philosophical and logical examination of knowledge.
Author: Professor Steven L. Goldman
Publisher: The Teaching Company
4151 Lafayette Center Drive, Suite 100
Chantilly, VA 20151-1232
Copyright: 2006
Format: CD, DVD, Audio Tape
Lectures: 24