module co-ordinator: Dr H Sheehan

                             multimedia presentation on modern philosophy & science
                           philosophy of science timeline

week 2   alternative epistemologies & philosophies of science   (HS)

                    the trajectory from positivism to neo-positivism to post-positivism
                    multimedia presentation on positivism & pragmatism

week 3    relativity & rationality: escalating epistemological crises in science   (HS)

            the forces ranged against science & the case for the defense
            epistemological criteria
            science / pseudoscience/ antiscience: where to draw the line ?
          multimedia presentation on sociology of knowledge

week 4    the rise of the repressed in the history of knowledge    (HS)

                   alternative approaches to science & gender / class / race / nation
                   the "pc wars", the canon, science and philosophy
                 multimedia presentation on class, race, gender
                   Brecht   questions from a worker who reads

week 5    marxism as epistemology & philosophy of science   (HS)

              marxism & the philosophy of science: a critical history     Bernal / Haldane / Caudwell

with multimedia presentation

               a case study of the convergences / collisions of science / philosophy / politics
               the october revolution and soviet intellectual life in the early days
               ideas and purges: soviet intellectual life and the next years
                 Lysenko and Lysenkoism
             the comintern: the beginning and the end

week 7    "science wars"     a class debate

              who are the combatants and why the combat ?
              science wars social text on the web    Alan Sokal articles on the "social text" affair

               for class debates from previous years:
                 1998 radio debate broadcast on DWR-FM 102.2 on 18 and 25 April 1998 &  1999 debate

week 8    science & religion: compatible or contradictory ?
                    a debate on the relationship between science & religion
                   questions of criteria         1999 debate

week 9   science in literature                                                                             Dr Michael Cronin

an overview of literary representations of science & scientists through the ages

week 10   "Dr Frankenstein, I presume"                 ( MC)

the myth of the monstrous in images of science

problems of narrative in literary fictions about science & scientists

e-mail to lecturers: helena.sheehan@dcu.ie michael.cronin@dcu.ie
e-mail to class: cm535@list.dcu.ie