General Information
| Lecturer | Prof. Dr. Armin Heinzl |
|---|---|
| Course Format | Seminar |
| Credit Points | 8 ECTS |
| Language | English |
| Grading | Seminar Paper (60%), Discussion and Discourse (40%) |
| Information for Students | Registration by email to heinzluni-mannheim.de |
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
Grading and Attendance
Seminar Paper and Presentation
You are requested to retrieve additional literature which deepens the respective stances. This will also frame and guide your seminar paper. The latter will be presented at the beginning of the subsequent session. Time format is 30 min for the presentation plus 30 min for the joint discussion.
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
This book represents a starting point. It will be the basis for the discussion sessions:
- Chalmers, A.F.: What is this thing called science? 4th edition, Hill and Wang Publisher, 2013.
or
Chalmers, A.F.: Wege der Wissenschaft: Einführung in die Wissenschaftstheorie (German Editi-on), Springer 2006
Recommendable is also the following book for further studies:
- Curd, M.; Cover, J.A., Pincock, C.: Philosophy of Science – the Central Issues, 2nd edition, Nor-ton publishers, 2012
For session 6, the sources will be specified according to the topics selected.
- Chalmers, A.F.: What is this thing called science? 4th edition, Hill and Wang Publisher, 2013.
Teaching Format
If the Covid-19 pandemic permits, the course will be offered in a presence format. Please make sure you fully comply with the contemporary hygienic safety regulations of the University of Mannheim. Please do not forget your masks and keep the respective safety distance to your fellow students and instructor(s).
In addition, the sessions will be transmitted and recorded via Zoom.