Knowledge, Science, and Technology

Indhold

Part 1. Theories of truth (Klemens Kappel)

The first part of the course focus on understanding philosophical theories of truth as they have been discussed in 20th century philosophy. We will focus on understanding the main features of classical theories, including the correspondence theory (truth is somehow correspondence with (independent) reality), the coherence theory (truth is coherence with some set of beliefs), pragmatist or instrumentalist theories (truth is somehow usefulness), and epistemic theories of truth (truth is whatever we would accept given ideal epistemic circumstances). More briefly, we will also discuss deflationist account of truth (to say that a belief is true is not to indicate a special property of that belief, but just a way of asserting the content of the belief), and pluralism about truth (truth can consist in different features in different domains).The focus will be on core features and arguments for and against these theories. We will introduce to theories of truth by reading Kirkhams much praised Theories of Truth, MIT Press 1995. Much 209th century discussion of truth has centered on the conviction that versions of the correspondence theory lead to skepticism or to unsurmountable problems of accounting of the relation between what is true and the Independent) reality in virtue of which a something is true. We will discuss and assess these problems, in particular focusing on Alston’s version of a realist correspondence theory of truth as set forth in his A Realist Conception of Truth, Cornell University Press 1996. Finally, we will discuss Heidegger and Foucaults contribution to thinking on truth. 

Part 2. Re-engineering First Philosophy: Descartes, Inherited Arguments, and the Origins of Modern Knowledge (David Possen)

In this portion of the course, we will dare to take seriously Descartes’ claim, in his 1641 Dedicatory Letter to the Sorbonne, that the originality of his Meditations lay not in devising new arguments, but in repackaging a set of existing ones.

Rather than dismissing this claim as false modesty (as admirers of Descartes have traditionally done), or using it to deny him philosophical merit (as Descartes’ critics did in his own age), we explore a third possibility: that Descartes’ breakthrough did indeed consist in reordering and re-engineering existing knowledge, and that doing precisely this yielded unprecedented speculative power and new horizons for scientific theorizing.

We will close by considering the Danish philosopher Søren Gosvig Olesen’s remarkable suggestion that Descartes’ Meditations represents a definitive turn in the very history of the subject. We will trace Gosvig’s account of how, as the authority of the eternal faded, Descartes redeployed arguments from antiquity to construe reality as ultimately constituted by the autonomous subject – paving the way for the putative technological mastery of nature that defines our present age.

Del 3. Husserls Ideen  (Søren Gosvig)

Edmund Husserls videnskabsfilosofi indtager en særstatus ved at forene det uforenelige: den cartesianske og den aristoteliske videnskabsopfattelse. Hovedteksten for denne syntese er 1. kapitel af Ideen I om kendsgerningsvidenskabernes afhængighed af væsensvidenskaber, og nærmere bestemmelsen af forholdet mellem regional ontologi og formal ontologi. Husserls syntese er forberedt af lang tids arbejde med videnskabelige regioner som tallet (Über den Begriff der Zahl, 1887) og det logiske (Logische Untersuchungen, 1900); den fastholdes til det sidste i bestemmelsen af videnskabernes krise (Die Krisis der europäischen Wissenschaften, 1935-36). Sent i forfatterskabet bliver Husserls syn på videnskaberne også en bevidsthed om historien som den menneskelige erkendelses betingelse, en bevidsthed som skærpes hos hans elev Alexandre Koyré og dennes kollega Gaston Bachelard. Denne del af kurset giver en oversigt over udviklingen.

Undervisningsplan: se de enkelte moduler på Absalon

Pensum: 

Den studerende opgiver et samlet pensum på 1000 normalsider og sammen-

sætter det således, at mindst 250 normalsider deraf stammer fra kursets ob-

ligatoriske pensum. Eksaminator skal godkende pensum. Kursets obligatori-

ske pensum udgør i alt 750 normalsider, der er ligeligt fordelt inden for filo-

sofihistorie (-1900), teoretisk filosofi og fænomenologi med ca. 1/3 til hver.

Prøveform:

Fri skriftlig hjemmeopgave og bunden mundtlig prøve uden forberedelse.

Omfang af den skriftlige hjemmeopgave: 6-11 normalsider.

Den mundtlige prøve varer 30 min inklusiv votering

Bedømmelse: 7-trins-skala. Den skriftlige og den mundtlige prøve vægter ens, og der gives en samlet bedømmelse.

Gruppebestemmelser: Prøven kan kun aflægges individuelt.

Eksaminationssprog: Dansk eller engelsk.

Tilladte hjælpemidler: Alle, se dog kursusbeskrivelsen for særlige regler vedrørende brug af generativ kunstig intelligens.

Syge-/omprøve: Samme som netop ovenfor.

 Særlige bestemmelser

Underviser godkender emnet for den fri skriftlige hjemmeopgave. Ved kursets afslutning udleveres 9-12 spørgsmål, som tilsammen dækker hele kursets bredde. Ved den mundtlige eksamen trækker den studerende et af de udleverede spørgsmål, som danner udgangspunkt for den mundtlige prøve.