Philosophy of Science and Technology
Code: 106214Credits: 6
| Degree programme | Type | Course |
|---|---|---|
| Science, Technology and Humanities | FB | 1 |
Contact lecturer
- Name :
- Jaume Sastre Juan
- Email :
- jaume.sastre@uab.cat
Teaching staff
- Jordi Vallverdu Segura
Group languages
You can consult this information at the end of the document.
Prerequisites
There are none.
Objectives
The goal of this subject is to be an introduction to the main debates in the philosophy of science and technology.
The first section revolves around five major debates that define a great part of the theoretical discussions in philosophy of science today. These are also five debates that characterize the evolution of this discipline since its beginnings in the twentieth century, when it separated from epistemology.
The goal of the second section is to provide tools in order to think critically about technology, and to put them in practice through the situated analysis of specific artefacts and technological systems. How to think philosophically about the material constitution of the worlds we inhabit? How does technology embody social relations, ideas and values? How does it materialize power relations and shapes forms of life?
Learning outcomes
- Search for, select and manage information independently, both from structured sources (databases, bibliographies, specialist journals) and from the web.
- Correctly, accurately and clearly communicating the acquired philosophical knowledge in oral and written form.
- Construct philosophical arguments with rigour.
- Present the concepts specific to ethics apply and apply them to the problems of science and technology.
- Present the concepts specific to the philosophy of technology.
- Present the concepts specific to the philosophy of science.
- Use digital tools to collect, classify, analyse and interpret significant data related to philosophy studies.
- Express ideas in specific vocabulary appropriate to the discipline.
- Produce organised, correct discourse, oral and written, in the corresponding language.
Contents
SECTION A
A.1. What is science and how it is related to reality?
What role should philosophy of science play in relation to scientific activity? What does it mean to understand science as a human and social activity? What is the relation between theory, experimentation and modelization? What relation does exist between predictive success, ability to intervene and truth? Does science represent reality or does it transform reality? What role do mathematics, models and formal languages play in the construction of scientific knowledge? Is it possible to speak about a single scientific rationality?
A.2. Is there progress in science? How does knowledge change?
Does it exist an accumulative progress in science or rather changes in the ways of understanding the world? How do methods, concepts and scientific instruments evolve? What role do scientific communities, institutions and cultural contexts play in the development of knowledge? How do ideas circulate between different intellectual traditions? Is modern science an exclusively western phenomenon? What can we learn from the so-called "Needham's problem" about the diversity of scientific rationalities? How is the global map of science changing nowadays?
A.3. Does science have values, ideologies and social constraints?
Is science a disinterested search for truth or is it inevitably linked to values, interests and historical contexts? What does it mean to claim that science is a social construction? Is observation always charged with theory? What role do scientific communities, publications and evaluation systems play? Is scientism a philosophical position or an ideology? What is the influence of ethical, political and cultural values in the production of knowledge? Are the different theories and cosmovisions commensurable?
A.4. What is the interaction between science, technology and humanities in contemporary society
Is science develop first and then comes technology, or do they evolve together? How have computation and artificial intelligence transformed scientific practice? What role do simulation, data and the new algorithmic systems play in the production of knowledge? What can the humanities bring to science and technology? How do sciences and technologies contribute to redefine our understanding of human beings and the world? What new forms of collaboration can emerge between science, art and technology?
SECTION B
B.1. The question concerning technology: Fundamental debates in philosophy of technology
An introduction to some of the main debates about technology from the point of view of the philosophical tradition.
B.2. Design: The social shaping of technology
Departing from the debates about technological determinism and the autonomy of technology, we ask whether (and in what sense) technology is a social construction, as it is argued by the SCOT program in constructivist sociology of technology.
B.3. Interactions: The technological shaping of society
Departing from the debates about the degree of agency of technological objects and systems, we introduce the actor-network theory approach and reflect about notions such as “technical delegation” and “technical mediation”.
B.4. Technopolitics: Materiality, power and forms of life
Departing from the debates about progress and the neutrality of technology we ask whether (and how) artifacts have politics.
Learning activities and methodology
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Theoretical classes | 33 | 1.32 | |
| Office hours and supervision of essays | 4.25 | 0.17 | |
| Autonomous study | 86.75 | 3.47 | |
| Practical work at class | 16 | 0.64 |
This subject combines theoretical classes with discussion in class. The first section will deal thematically with key current debates in the philosophy of science, that will also serve to make an overview of the main approaches within the discipline throughout the twentieth century. The second section will deal with one or several philosophical, historical or sociological perspectives about technology, that will always be discussed in relation to specific and situated tools, artefacts or technical systems. Further bibliographical references for each of the topics will be published in the campus virtual.
Assessment
Continuous assessment activities
| Title | Weight | Hours | ECTS | Learning outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Partial Exam Section A | 20% | 1.5 | 0.06 | 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9 |
| Partial Exam Section B | 20% | 1.5 | 0.06 | 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9 |
| Written Essay Section B | 30% | 3.5 | 0.14 | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 |
| Written Exercice Section A | 30% | 3.5 | 0.14 | 3, 4, 6, 8, 9 |
This course can be assessed through two modalities, continuous assessment and single assessment.
CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT
The continuous assessment will consist in:
A) Two partial exams (20% + 20%), one for each section.
The format will be announced in due time.
B) A written exercise on the selected readings of Section A (30%).
This exercice will consist in an exam on 10 basic readings in the philosophy of science, previously selected by the professor. These readings might have been worked on partially or totally in class, or be part of the autonomous work of the student.
C) A written assignment in Section B (30%).
The format will be announced in due time.
All assessment activities will have the opportunity to be revised. On carrying out each evaluation activity, lecturers will inform students (on Moodle) of the procedures to be followed for reviewing all grades awarded, and the date on which such a review will take place.
To pass the subject through continuous assessment, an average minimum of 5 is required.
The student will be given the grade of “non-assessable” if less than 30% of the assessment activities are submitted.
In the event of a student committing any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade awarded to an assessment activity, the student will be given a zero for this activity, regardless of any disciplinary process that may take place, and it will not be able to reassess it. In the event of several irregularities in assessment activities of the same subject, the student will be given a zero as the final grade for this subject.
This subject entirely prohibits the use of AI technologies in all of its activities. Any submitted work that contains content generated using AI will be considered academic dishonesty; the corresponding grade will be awarded a zero, without the possibility of reassessment. In cases of greater infringement, more serious action may be taken.
For their admission to reassessment, students must have been previously assessed from a set of activities that are equivalent to a minimum of 2/3 parts of the whole qualification. The minimum average grade of the assessed activities cannot be inferior to 3 nor higher than 5.
Re-assessment will consist in submitting again the assessment activities in which the student failed. The format will be announced with enough anticipation. If a student needs to reassess the two items of Section A, the reassessment will consist in a global exam.
Any change related to assessment, methodology, etc., will appear at the Virtual Campus in due course.
This subject does not admit SINGLE ASSESSMENT.
In the event of a student committing any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade awarded to an assessment activity, the student will be given a zero for this activity,
regardless of any disciplinary process that may take place.
This subject entirely prohibits the use of AI technologies in all of its activities. Any submitted work that contains content generated using AI will be considered academic dishonesty; the corresponding grade will be awarded a zero, without the possibility of reassessment. In cases of greater infringement, more serious action may be taken.
For their admission to reassessment, the minimum average grade of the assessed activities cannot be inferior to 3 nor higher than 5. The reassessment will consist in the repetition of the assessed activities in the same format.
Any change related to assessment, methodology, etc., will appear at the Virtual Campus in due course.
Bibliography
SECTION A – PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
Manuals and general works
- Bachelard, Gaston (1993). La formación del espíritu científico (1948). Madrid: Siglo XXI.
- Chalmers, A. F. (2023). ¿Qué es esa cosa llamada ciencia? Madrid: Siglo XXI.
- Díez, José A. & Moulines, Ulises (2008). Fundamentos de Filosofía de la Ciencia. Barcelona: Ariel.
- Echeverría, Javier (2007). Filosofía de la Ciencia. Madrid: Akal.
- Estany, Anna (2016). Introducción a la filosofía de la ciencia. Bellaterra: Edicions UAB.
- Mosterín, Jesús & Torretti, Roberto (2002). Diccionario de Lógica y Filosofía de la Ciencia. Madrid: Alianza.
Main authors and classical debates
- Feyerabend, Paul (2007). Contra el método. Madrid: Tecnos.
- Kuhn, Thomas S. (2016). La estructura de las revoluciones científicas. Madrid: Fondo de Cultura Económica.
- Popper, Karl (2008). La lógica de la investigación científica. Madrid: Tecnos.
- van Fraassen, Bas C. (1980). The Scientific Image. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Cartwright, Nancy (1983). How the Laws of Physics Lie. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Hacking, Ian (1983). Representing and Intervening. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Chang, Hasok (2012). Is Water H₂O? Evidence, Realism and Pluralism. Dordrecht: Springer.
Science, society and scientific practices
- Haraway, Donna (2019). Seguir con el problema. Generar parentesco en el Chthuluceno. Bilbao: Consonni.
- Harding, Sandra (1991). Whose Science? Whose Knowledge? Thinking from Women's Lives. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
- Latour, Bruno (2017). Lecciones de sociología de las ciencias. Barcelona: Garra.
- Longino, Helen (1990). Science as Social Knowledge. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
- Merton, Robert K. (1973). The Sociology of Science. Theoretical and Empirical Investigations. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
- Price, Derek J. de Solla (1963). Little Science, Big Science. New York: Columbia University Press.
- Ziman, John (2000). Real Science. What It Is and What It Means. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Plurality of rationalities and circulation of knowledge
- Needham, Joseph (1969). The Grand Titration: Science and Society in East and West. London: George Allen & Unwin.
- Raj, Kapil (2007). Relocating Modern Science: Circulation and the Construction of Knowledge in South Asia and Europe, 1650-1900. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
- Serres, Michel (ed.) (1991). Historia de las ciencias. Madrid: Cátedra.
- Nicolescu, Basarab (1996). La Transdisciplinariedad. Mónaco: Éditions du Rocher.
Cognition and sciences of complexity
- Varela, Francisco J.; Thompson, Evan & Rosch, Eleanor (2017). The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience. Revised Edition. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
- Gigerenzer, Gerd (2008). Rationality for Mortals: How People Cope with Uncertainty. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Artificial intelligence and new epistemological scenarios
- Crawford, Kate (2023). Atlas de IA. Poder, política y costes planetarios de la inteligencia artificial. Barcelona: NED.
- Floridi, Luciano (2014). The Fourth Revolution: How the Infosphere is Reshaping Human Reality. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Pearl, Judea & Mackenzie, Dana (2018). The Book of Why: The New Science of Cause and Effect. New York: Basic Books.
Complementary bibliography
- Daston, Lorraine & Galison, Peter (2007). Objectivity. New York: Zone Books.
- Galison, Peter (1997). Image and Logic: A Material Culture of Microphysics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
- Netz, Reviel (1999). The Shaping of Deduction in Greek Mathematics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Rotman, Brian (1987). Signifying Nothing: The Semiotics of Zero. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Recent contributions regarding IA and causality
- Vallverdú, Jordi (2024). Causality for Artificial Intelligence: From a Philosophical Perspective. Singapore: Springer.
SECTION B – PHILOSOPHY OF TECHNOLOGY
Aibar, Eduard (2023). El culto a la innovación: Estragos de una visión sesgada de la tecnología. Barcelona: NED Ediciones.
Almazán, Adrián (2021). Técnica y tecnología: Cómo conversar con un tecnolófilo. Madrid: Taugenit.
Anders, Günther (2011 [1956]). La obsolescencia del hombre: Sobre el alma en la época de la segunda revolución industrial. Valencia: Pre-Textos.
Crawford, Kate (2023). Atlas de IA: Poder, política y costas planetarios de la inteligencia artificial. Barcelona: NED Ediciones.
Edgerton, David (2006). Innovación y tradición: Historia de la tecnología moderna. Barcelona: Crítica.
Fressoz, Jean-Baptiste (2025). Sin transición: Una nueva historia de la energía. Barcelona: Arpa.
García, Vivien (2024). Que faire de l’intelligence artificielle? Petite histoire critique de la raison artificielle. Paris: Payot-Rivages.
Heidegger, Martin (2021 [1954]). La pregunta por la técnica. Barcelona: Herder.
Latour, Bruno (2017 [1993]). Lecciones de sociología de las ciencias. Barcelona: Arpa.
MacKenzie, Donald & Wajcman, Judy (eds.) (1999). Social Shaping of Technology (2nd edition). Philadelphia: Open University Press.
Mitcham, Carl (1989). ¿Qué es la filosofía de la tecnología? Barcelona: Anthropos.
Mumford, Lewis (2016 [1967-1970]). El mito de la máquina (2 vols.). Logroño: Pepitas de Calabaza.
Ortega y Gasset, José (2014 [1933]). Ensimismamiento y alteración. Meditación de la técnica y otros ensayos. Madrid: Alianza Editorial.
Scharff, Robert; Dusek, Val (eds.) (2014). Philosophy of Technology: The Technological Condition (2nd edition). An Anthology. Malden: Willey-Blackwell.
Schatzberg, Eric (2018). Technology: Critical History of a Concept. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Schüll, Natasha Dow (2012). Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Simondon, Gilbert (2018 [1958]). El modo de existencia de los objetos técnicos. Buenos Aires: Prometeo.
Suchman, Lucy (2006). Human-Machine Reconfigurations: Plans and Situated Actions (2nd edition). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Verbeek, Peter-Paul (2005). What Things Do: Philosophical Reflections on Technology, Agency, and Design. University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press.
Winner, Langdon (1987). La ballena y el reactor: Una búsqueda de los límites en la era de la alta tecnología. Barcelona: Gedisa.
Software
No specific software is required.
Course groups and languages
The information provided is provisional until November 30. After this date, you will be able to consult the language of each group through this link. To access the information, you will need to enter the course CODE
| Type of teaching | Group | Language | Semester | Shift |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (TE) Theory | 1 | Spanish | second semester | morning-mixed |
| (PAUL) Classroom practices | 1 | Spanish | second semester | morning-mixed |