This course is co-taught with Marcel Weber.

It its widely assumed that science aims at truth and is sometimes successful in this quest. Time and again, philosophers, historians and sociologists of science have called these assumptions into question. In this seminar, we will discuss some recent challenges as well as attempts of defending the traditional view. Among other topics, we will discuss the view that science should aim at empirically adequate theories, because truth is not justifiable. Another approach to be critically examined takes the widespread practices of idealization as a point of departure for arguing that the goal of science is to provide understanding, which does not require truth. Of course, we will also consider what sorts of entities (e.g., theories, models, causal hypotheses) can be said to be true or perhaps approximatively true.

This seminar will be conducted in English. The readings will be made available on moodle.

If this seminar is taken for credit, please let us know. For credit in philosophy you will have to fulfill requirements, depending on the module for which you are taking this course:

MA2, demi-module 2a:

- Evaluation: examen écrit de 4h portant sur le contenu du séminaire.

MA5, demi-module 5a:

- Evaluation: examen écrit de 4h portant sur le contenu du séminaire.

Contact one of us if you need credit in another programme.

In its Statement on artificial intelligence, the University of Geneva clearly states that

In their scientific publications and creations, researchers and students are required to respect the rules and principles governing scientific integrity, in particular the prohibition of plagiarism, and to comply with good scientific practice.

This good scientific practice demands that the use of generative AI "must always be explicitly agreed upon with the research supervisor and must be methodologically describable" (Guidebook on Generative Artificial Intelligence, p. 14) because they "raise issues of plagiarism" (ibid.). Hence, "[w]riting tasks should not be delegated to the tool" (ibid.). In other words, it is impermissible to use ChatGPT or similar tools in the writing of seminar papers or theses.

All reading materials will be made available on Moodle.

Course materials such as lecture notes, handouts, etc may be made available as they will be used in class.

This is the schedule for the seminar. It is subject to adjustment.