General Information
| Lecturer | Prof. Dr. Armin Heinzl |
|---|---|
| Course Format | Seminar |
| Credit Points | 8 ECTS |
| Language | English |
| Grading | 60 % Seminar presentation and slides 40 % Moderation and discussion |
| Information for Students | Registration by email to heinzluni-mannheim.de until Sept 10, 2024 |
Course Information
Brief Description
This course is designed for doctoral students in information systems and other managerial disciplines. It provides a basic understanding of philosophy of science and its epistemological foundations. On the one hand, the course will focus on those concepts which derive knowledge from observation, induction, and refutation of facts. Furthermore, it also takes experiments as well as the new experimentalism into account in order to refer to those disciplines that focus on the evaluation of artifacts like prototypes and algorithms for example. Thus, the underlying epistemological foundations are of central interest to every doctoral student who studies the structure and behavior of information systems and operations/
logistics phenomena. The course will be offered in an interactive style. All doctoral students have to offer at least one presentation and a documentation regarding a specific epistemological stance. Assignment of topics will be conducted by the lecturer. Course Outline & Schedule
Schedule
Date Time Topic Room Literature Moderator 11.09.2024 14.00 – 15.00 h Kick-Off / Pre-Session: -Introduction of the participants and their research -Introduction of the course objectives and structure -Literature overview -Topic definition for seminar papers Room 214/ 215, L15, 1–6 (tbc) n.a. – 11.10.2024 14:00 – 17.15 h Positivism: – Science as knowledge derived from the facts of experience – Observation and experiments as practical intervention – Deriving theories from facts: induction – Limitations of positivism Room 214/ 215, L15, 1–6 (tbc) Chalmers, pp. 1–58 Katharina Dietz 18.10.2024 14:00 – 17.15 h Anti-Positivism: – Falsificationism, Sophisticated Falsificationism, and its limita-tions -Beyond Chalmers: Interpretativism Room 214/ 215, L15, 1–6 (tbc) Chalmers, pp. 59–103 Tobias Maier 25.10.2024 14:00 – 17.15 h Non method-centric stances: – Kuhn’s paradigms – Lakatos’ research programs – Feyerabend’s anarchistic theory of science – Methodical changes in method Room 214/ 215, L15, 1–6 (tbc) Chalmers, pp. 104–173 Jonas Bauer 08.11.2024 14:00 – 17.15 h Bridging the past and the future: – The “new” experimentalism – Why should the world obey laws? – Realism and anti-realism Room 214/ 215, L15, 1–6 (tbc) Chalmers, pp. 193–246 Mechthild Pieper 15.11.2024 14:00 – 17.15 Epistemological foundations of informatics and computer sci-ence or Room 214/ 215, L15, 1–6 (tbc) tba Florian Rüffer 29.11.2024 (tbc) 14:00 – 17.15 h Final presentations Room 214/ 215, L15, 1–6 (tbc) Term papers / slides – Grading and Attendance
Seminar Paper and Presentation
You are asked to develop a presentation which complements a research topic of your own choice with an epistemological stance that you are supposed to select, integrate and justify. Presentation time will 20 minutes (10 min for the research problem and 10 minutes for the epistemological foundation) plus 10 min discussion. You do not have to write a textual seminar paper but should send your presentation slides to the lecturer at latest by one week before your session. The presentation quality and the quality of the final slides will be used as basis for grading.
Assignments
During the first session, topics will be assigned to participating doctoral students. Each student will be asked to elaborate a presentation with regard to the assigned topic which goes beyond the introductory literature as well as to lead the discussion regarding his/
her topic. Further details will be provided in the first session. Literature
Chalmers, A.F.: What is this thing called science? 4th edition, Hill and Wang Publisher, 2013.
The book has been made available. It represents a starting point and will be the basis for the discussion sessions.
Recommendable is also the following book for further studies:
Curd, M.; Cover, J.A., Pincock, C.: Philosophy of Science – the Central Issues, 2nd edition, Norton publishers, 2012
For session 6, the sources will be specified according to the topics selected. The sessions owner is kindly asked to offer suggestions until November 30, 2024.
Session moderation
Every participant will autonomously moderate one session. The objective is to facilitate a class discussion of the respective chapters in the textbook from Alan Chalmers.
The names are included in the schedule. Every moderator should contact the lecturer at least one week before the final presentation with a proposal of the discussion questions and auxiliary materials.