6 ECTS credits
165 h study time

Offer 1 with catalog number 4018301FER for all students in the 1st semester at a (F) Master - specialised level.

Semester
1st semester
Enrollment based on exam contract
Possible
Grading method
Grading (scale from 0 to 20)
Can retake in second session
Yes
Taught in
English
Partnership Agreement
Under interuniversity agreement for degree program
Faculty
Faculty of Languages & Humanities
Department
History, Archaeology, Arts, Philosophy and Ethics
Educational team
Steffen Ducheyne (course titular)
Activities and contact hours
32 contact hours Lecture
2 contact hours Seminar, Exercises or Practicals
140 contact hours Independent or External Form of Study
Course Content

In this specialized course, students will be introduced to the historical and philosophical foundations of scientific methodology. As will become evident throughout the course, science encompasses more than its empirical findings and theoretical structures. Scientific inquiry also possesses a methodological dimension—one that, when examined retrospectively, reveals how we have come to acquire knowledge about the natural world. These methodological practices and the views underpinning them have their own distinct history, and it is this history that will serve as the central focus of the course.

Our attention will be directed primarily toward methodological developments within physics from the seventeenth century to the mid-nineteenth century. We will examine the methodological reflections and practices of influential figures such as Francis Bacon, René Descartes, Robert Hooke, Robert Boyle, J. B. van Helmont, Galileo Galilei, Isaac Newton, John Stuart Mill, and William Whewell, among others. Particular emphasis will be placed on the sophisticated methodological framework exemplified in Newton’s Principia.

A key objective of the course is to challenge the widespread assumption that a single, universally applicable scientific method exists. Instead, we will explore how scientific progress has relied on a diverse repertoire of methodological tools, each possessing its own strengths, limitations, and historical contexts of use.

Course material
Digital course material (Required) : Reader
Additional info

The reader contains state-of-the-art literature and historical case-studies. The reader and slides are available via CANVAS at the start of the course. The parts on Newton's methodology are based on Steffen Ducheyne, "The main Business of Natural Philosophy": Isaac Newton's Natural-Philosophical Methodology (Dordrecht, Springer: 2012). Students do NOT need to purchase this book, as it is available in both material form (class mark: 141.1 N NEWT DUCH 2012; URL=<https://biblio.vub.ac.be/iguana/www.main.cls?surl=search&p=f88fe9ec-2425-11e7-a7e4-90084dd7a2c4#recordId=3.470380&srchDb=3_UB01>) and electronic form in the university library (URL=<https://biblio.vub.ac.be/iguana/www.main.cls?surl=search&p=f88fe9ec-2425-11e7-a7e4-90084dd7a2c4#recordId=3.488616&srchDb=3_UB01>).

Learning Outcomes

Algemene competenties

  • The student is able to articulate a comprehensive and historically informed overview of long-term developments in scientific methodology from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century.
  • The student is able to explain, in detail, the methodological views and practices of the figures discussed in the course reader and to compare these perspectives in an analytically insightful manner.
  • The student can identify the distinctive features and significance of Newton’s Principia-style methodology and critically assess how it diverges from a standard hypothetico-deductive framework.
  • The student is able to demonstrate how various branches of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century physics were shaped by, and dependent upon, Newton’s Principia-style methodological approach.
  • The student is able to elucidate the ‘inductive’ methodologies of John Stuart Mill and William Whewell and to provide a detailed comparative analysis of their respective positions.

Grading

The final grade is composed based on the following categories:
Oral Exam determines 100% of the final mark.

Within the Oral Exam category, the following assignments need to be completed:

  • Oral exam with a relative weight of 1 which comprises 100% of the final mark.

    Note: Het examen is mondeling met schriftelijke voorbereiding en telt mee voor 100% van de score.

Additional info regarding evaluation

The oral exam with written preparation determines 100% of the grades.

Allowed unsatisfactory mark
The supplementary Teaching and Examination Regulations of your faculty stipulate whether an allowed unsatisfactory mark for this programme unit is permitted.

Academic context

This offer is part of the following study plans:
Master of Philosophy and Moral Sciences: Ethics and Humanism (only offered in Dutch)
Master of Philosophy and Moral Sciences: Philosophy (only offered in Dutch)
Research Master of Philosophy: Standaard traject
Master of Teaching in Arts and Humanities: History (only offered in Dutch)
Master of Teaching in Arts and Humanities: Art History and Heritage Studies (only offered in Dutch)
Master of Teaching in Arts and Humanities: Philosophy (only offered in Dutch)
Master of Teaching in Arts and Humanities: Ethics and Humanism (only offered in Dutch)