Burkay Ozturk

A detailed philosophical investigation of a few topics of special contemporary interest. See topic description for more information.

Today western societies put science on a pedestal. As a result, science informs anything and everything from city planning to whether you should put soy or oat milk in your latte. Does science deserve this reputation? If it does, what is the thing that makes science so special and authoritative? Or should we be worried about the domination of culture by science? In this course, we will study those questions with an eye on high-profile cases of scientific fraud and types of statistical manipulation known as 'p-hacking.' The reading list includes articles and book chapters by Paul Feyerabend, Alan Chalmers, Karl Popper, Imre Lakatos, Thomas Kuhn, Larry Laudan, David Goodstein, Jerry Fodor, Aubrey Clayton, Jacob Cohen, David Lykken, John Ioannidis and Richard Smith. Assignments vary, but they might include some or many of the following: weekly reading responses, quizzes, papers, and exams.